


A Most Noble Undertaking

by Butterfly



Series: Realignment [4]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-11-08
Updated: 2009-01-06
Packaged: 2017-10-26 19:36:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 25,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/287093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Butterfly/pseuds/Butterfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some reunions are just meant to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In which something odd occurs and the Doctor investigates.

“And then I press down on _that_ bit over _there_.”

The Doctor looked over when he heard Rose mumbling and he saw her glance up at the notes that he'd scribbled down for her earlier. He grinned and leaned back against the railing, hands in his pockets, swaying with the motion of the TARDIS. Rose was managing to hold the ship fairly steady, which was especially impressive considering that this was her first attempt at driving without him hovering over her.

“That'll anchor us to the right here and now,” she continued, sounding determined and, he was pleased to note, absolutely correct.

She leaned forward over the railing, her dark burgundy shirt pulling up in the back to reveal a strip of creamy skin that stood out clearly against her black trousers. She was still muttering reminders to herself under her breath – he'd probably be able to understand her words if he concentrated, but he was enjoying this particular moment just as it was too well to bother.

Her hair was hanging loose and he could see the hints of brunette creeping back into the roots – she'd likely want to go to a store soon, then, so that she could have her preferred coloring. Long ago, he'd got used to the slight peroxide scent her hair often carried, but he was willing to admit to a measure of curiosity about what her hair looked like in its natural state.

Still, it was Rose's hair, not his. There was a good chance that he'd never know.

She'd started to swear, now, but she was still on the right track. She might not land exactly on the day she'd been aiming for, but he didn't think she'd miss it by more than a week and they weren't in any sort of hurry. They hadn't phoned ahead, after all.

Rose let out a relieved sigh and, a moment later, the TARDIS shuddered to a stop.

“Well done,” he said, taking his hands out of his pockets so that he could wrap Rose up in a hug – she flung herself at him and he held her tightly, her warmth radiating through him. He stroked a gentle hand over her back and pressed his mouth just below the curve of her earlobe, feeling the cooler metal of her earring press against his skin. He was delighted to feel her shiver in pleased reaction – neither of them had fully adjusted to having each other back again. She'd come home only two weeks earlier, by personal subjective reckoning.

He'd spent so long without her and she'd been without him even longer, so he wasn't ashamed to admit that it was still something of a relief to have her this close. Her presence had always shaken him more than it should have, even in the beginning. “Next time, we'll do something a bit more fancy than London,” he whispered into her ear.

“I'd like that,” Rose said as she pulled away, joy sparkling in her eyes. “I mean, I'm glad to visit Sarah Jane and all, but I'd love to take us to an alien world.” Her mouth curved in a tender smile. “You've given me so much and I-”

“Have more than returned the favour,” the Doctor said, bending down so that he could capture her mouth with a kiss. His pulse quickened, the pace of both of his hearts accelerating as he drank in her taste and scent, catching the barest hint of her surface thoughts – as he'd suspected, her mind was full of the two of them, coupled in the traditional human fashion. He hadn't yet shared that with her, still wasn't entirely certain where to start after he'd gone so long without exploring human sexuality, but he wanted to, just as soon as he was sure that he would do it correctly.

He was pretty certain she thought he was worth a little bit of a wait.

Her hand was tugging at his collar and he let her adjust the angle of his body, parting his lips when he felt the brush of her tongue. His mind fluttered backwards, cataloguing the way Rose felt and comparing it to every other person he'd kissed – she was warmer than his wife had been, of course, or...

 _Ah_ , so much less forceful than Reinette – Rose moved his body to her purpose, but coaxed rather than pushed. She was softer than Joan's widow-hard shell but firmer than Martha, who had submitted to his genetic transfer disguised as a kiss with a surprising willingness. Rose's mouth was smaller than Jack's or Jamie's but wider than Astrid's or Cleo's.

They were simply data points, all of them, and utterly useless.

She was hot to the touch, controlled the kiss without forcing him. Her hips pressed snugly against him and she fit into his body as if she'd been made specifically for that purpose.

Though, of course, it had been the other way 'round – his old self burning away and the last remnants of his conscious thoughts desperately trying to forge him into a man who would please her.

There had been a time, during the long days without her, when he had hated that. His hand would reach out for hers and she wouldn't be there. He would spin Martha around in a hug and she wouldn't quite fit into the lines that had been created for another woman's body. Every atom of his new self had cried out for Rose and there had been moments when he'd wanted to regenerate purely so that he could escape that aching, hollow _need_ that was etched into his bones.

These days, he could barely remember the way he'd looked when he'd first met her. Acceptable, he supposed. Big ears, he recalled. But it hadn't mattered, that particular change – he'd been planning on dying with the rest of his people. Waking up had been something of a shock. His physical appearance had been the least of his concerns... and then he'd run into a young shopgirl and started worrying about the details again.

She'd been attracted to him, even then, and he'd been aware of it in a somewhat distant and pointless fashion – she'd had Mickey, after all, and she'd shown signs of attraction to Adam and Jack as well. Her continued friendship had meant more than any possible physical connection ever could have, especially if there had been a chance that it wouldn't be exclusive. He'd had a sharp, possessive edge to his feelings, back then, and it had cut at him every time Rose had so much as glanced at another bloke.

And then... then his regeneration had come and every moment of his initial change was as fresh in his mind now as it had been that day, before regeneration sickness had overtaken him. He particularly remembered a sick sensation of fear crawling over him – a fear that he wouldn't be able to keep the intensity of what he'd previously felt for Rose with him in this new body.

Then he'd opened his eyes and he _saw_ her.

The world had been clean and beautiful and she... she had been this alien, gorgeous creature in his brand-new universe, with her brilliantly wide mouth and her shining, lovely eyes.

Getting her to accept him had been what mattered most to him, even saving the Earth turning into a secondary consideration. As always with Rose, he needed to prove himself and when he did, she graced him with that unforgettable smile of hers, the one that hid no secrets but promised a million days of sunshine.

That was what he could taste in her mouth that he'd never known before – that breath of hope buried in her sunlight. He hadn't needed it before... before he'd woken up alone in his TARDIS with his mind hollow and empty of his people and burning chunks of rock floating where his planet used to orbit.

There was a power in hope – he'd always known that. It was the primary currency that he'd dealt with in his long years of travel. She'd reminded him of that power in their first kiss. She'd given it back to him.

His mind had been empty and she had filled it – not... not in the same way as his people had, of course, and yet...

Here he was, kissing her and meaning it as more than a 'thank you' or a trick or a game. Once again, Rose Tyler had taken the impossible and shown it to be merely somewhat unlikely. She was here and thrice cursed hope bubbled up inside him again.

His hand slipped underneath the soft fabric of her shirt and brushed against bare skin, making both of them shiver, and he gave a thought to giving in to her now, of allowing this to be the moment when they first engaged in sexual intimacy.

She was so warm...

But then his mind recalled where they were and Sarah Jane surely would have noticed the TARDIS by now. He allowed himself one last stroke against Rose's skin and then he gathered in his desire and pushed it to the back of his mind, letting his kiss with Rose end gently as he straightened up.

Her pupils had dilated, making her eyes look darker, almost a true brown, and he was tempted to reconsider his decision... but then she shifted against his hold and he felt her thoughts pushing back the slightest sensation of pain, which dulled his libido as surely as Jackie Tyler finding her way to their door would have done.

She was still hurting from her stomach wound. He'd suspected it, but she'd been trying so hard to show him a brave face that he hadn't been entirely certain. Well, it was good for him to know – it reaffirmed his decision for them to come here. They could stay with Sarah Jane for a time... perhaps a week or two, as they had with Martha and her family... and when they were ready to leave, Rose would be fully healed and undoubtably prepared to heedlessly throw herself into peril once more.

“We should go out there or she'll wonder what's keeping us,” Rose said. She sounded a bit disappointed. The Doctor wondered, cautiously, if what he'd just done would be considered teasing. He did plan on doing all those things in Rose's head, he just...

Well, they certainly couldn't do it while she was still injured.

“I wonder what sort of neighborhood it is,” Rose said, reaching down to tug slightly at her shirt as she backed away. He wasn't entirely sure of the purpose behind what she was doing, as her outfit looked perfectly orderly to him. “How do we know for sure that it was Sarah Jane's trace that we were tracking, anyway?”

“There's a DNA-link in the protocol,” the Doctor said. “ _Well_ , I say 'there is', but though the basics of it existed, I'm the one who built it up and put it into the system. Wasn't very hard, not for me. Anyone else would have had more problems, of course. I may have trailed near the bottom of most of my classes, but no one came anywhere near me in hands-on repair work. I put it in after you and I ran into Sarah Jane the last time. You seem to take a liking to her, so I-”

“Seriously?” Rose asked, mouth curling up in a smile. “You did it for me?”

The Doctor shrugged, not entirely willing to admit to the fact.

“You did it for me,” she said, quietly. There was a contentment in her face that was impossible to resist. She reached out and took his hand in hers, pulling him along as she started toward the door.

Her hand was touching the handle when a loud chiming noise sounded.

“What's that?” she asked, turning to stare at the control column which was... yes, one of the monitors attached to it was flashing a warning now.

The 'dangerous radiation' warning, to be precise. By Rassilon and all the _bloody_ useless ministers of the High Council, something like this would have to happen now. Rose had dropped his hand and hurried back to the monitor and it looked like she was trying to work out what words were up on the screen, but he hadn't had occasion to show her anything to do with 'radiation' yet.

For that matter, he hadn't showed her what 'danger' looked like in Gallifreyan, which was clearly an oversight when he gave it some thought. She found more trouble than the rest of his companions all put-together.

Well, perhaps not more than Jo. Sweet scattered-brained Jo and her ability to find danger at the drop of a hat. Would she still be alive on this particular day in Earth's history? She hadn't been all that much older than Sarah Jane, so it was possible.

Still, she'd gone off to get married, so she was probably busy. Some sort of forest-y type of bloke, as he recalled, or perhaps she'd been planning to go _to_ a forest. Something of that nature. And Jo was the sort to throw herself into a life and not look back. She didn't need an interfering old alien mucking up her happiness.

The Doctor pulled out his glasses and slid them on, looking at the warning closely and... hmm, the radiation was far enough away that Sarah Jane wasn't in any danger, but the type of radiation wasn't coming up on the screen. He pressed a couple of buttons, trying to clear up the signal, but it was refusing to cooperate.

“Hmm,” he said.

“What is it?” Rose asked, pressing up against his side. “What've you found?”

“I'm not entirely certain,” he said, twisting the lever that would boost the power levels in the sensor. The radiation was reading to be close to _Huon_ particles, but it also showed some base similarities to the readings that were given off by a Time Lord during regeneration, which was patently absurd. “The results don't make any sense. I'm going to need to check it out in person.”

“Right,” Rose said. “Should we let Sarah Jane know that we can't stay? She'll have noticed the TARDIS by now.”

The Doctor glanced over at Rose – determined and fearless, as always – and then back at the monitor. “I don't think that would be a good idea.”

Rose got a mulish expression on her face, so he needed to hurry now, before she decided she would go with him no matter _what_ he said.

“Do you see this number here?” he asked her, pointing. She nodded, uncertainly. “That says that the energy being given off resembles a kind of particle known as a Huon. Enough of that will kill a human.”

“It won't hurt you?”

The Doctor hesitated. Much as Rose's concern for him always warmed him, it wasn't really the best time for it. Still, he couldn't lie to her.

“It won't hurt me as much,” he said, finally. “It'll take longer for it to begin to affect me and even after that, it'll permeate my cells more slowly than it would yours.”

“I don't like letting you go off on your own,” Rose said, frowning, her eyebrows drawn together in worry. He waited for her to continue, not wanting to rush her on this particular issue. This would all be so much easier if she came to the correct conclusion on her own. He'd realized recently that all of the orders and pleading and asking in the world couldn't keep Rose Tyler in a place where she'd decided not to stay.

She was giving him an uncertain look now, her eyes wide and her mind not projecting the slightest hint of what she was thinking. One of her hands came up and clasped her wrist, rubbing, and he realized that she was tracing her fingertips over the promise bracelet that he'd given to her.

“I almost lost you,” he said, softly, reaching out and stilling her nervous hand. “Not quite two weeks ago, Rose.”

“I don't want this to become a habit,” she said, wrapped her fingers around his. “Just this once, all right?”

“I promise,” he said, lifting up her hand to place a tender kiss on her palm, sealing his words to her.

“Doctor, I...” she seemed uncertain, still. It reminded him too much of early days, of fights on space stations and of wondering when she would demand to go home.

Not that she could, anymore. He'd made certain of that, with his matchmaking scheme. She had no home left but the TARDIS.

“I've still got that mobile that I picked up in Cardiff,” he said, absently patting at his coat with his free hand. It was in there somewhere. He knew that he'd transferred it over from the pockets of his old leather jacket. Odd that he'd never given that number to Martha. Well, she hadn't really needed it. And if she wanted to contact him, she'd left him another phone which... was also somewhere in his coat. He really needed to go through his pockets at some point. “Ring me if you need anything and I'll contact you in the event of... well, if there's anything eventful that you need to know about.”

“Full points for being vague,” Rose said. At least she was feeling well enough to tease him. “But aren't you coming in for a cup of tea?”

“Oh, you can do that for me,” the Doctor said cheerfully. “This shouldn't take more than a day. Well, maybe two. It depends on what's causing that radiation. The sooner I start looking, the more quickly the problem can get solved.”

“Sarah Jane would appreciate it more if you came in,” Rose said, sounding reproachful.

“Was that me being rude?” the Doctor asked, blinking. It didn't seem quite _that_ rude to him – having Rose was just as good as having him, after all. Sarah Jane, of all people, would understand that. She'd met Rose, so she knew what it was like.

“Yes,” Rose said, tucking his hand around her elbow. Apparently, he was going to go in for a cup of tea with Sarah Jane no matter what else he might have been planning. “That was you being almost unforgivably rude. Luckily, Sarah Jane isn't here or she might give you a good smacking. And you'd deserve it, too.”

“Are you going to give it to me for her?” the Doctor asked archly, as he and Rose headed back to the TARDIS door.

“I should,” she said, but violence did not seem to be imminent. He opened the door and escorted her through and...

ah, yes, there Sarah Jane was, standing in the middle of what must be her backyard, looking at them with impatience, though he didn't think anyone else would pick up on it. He'd spent years with Sarah, though, so he was keenly aware of her moods. Well, most of them, anyway. _Well_ , at least half. He definitely knew at least half of Sarah Jane's moods.

“Not that I don't appreciate the visit,” she said, briskly but not without warmth. “But a bit of warning would have been nice.”

“But this way, it's a surprise,” Rose said, unhooking herself from him and going over to wrap Sarah Jane up in a hug. She was nearly clinging to the woman and then it clicked for him – yes, she hadn't just been missing him. She hadn't seen Sarah Jane in almost nine years. Sarah Jane herself seemed a bit taken back by Rose's enthusiasm, but soon melted into the hug. She lifted her head up a bit to meet the Doctor's gaze, and her eyes were filled with curiosity. “Are you all right if I stay for a bit?”

“As long as you need to,” Sarah Jane said, but she didn't seem very happy.

“I should be back in a day or so,” the Doctor said, sticking his hands in his pockets. Sarah Jane pulled away from Rose and took a step toward him. She was staring at him with an expression that he didn't recognize at all, which he thought was terribly unfair of her.

“You're leaving Rose here?” Sarah Jane asked, her voice higher than normal.

“It's not safe,” he said, patiently, glancing over at Rose to see how she was doing. All well over there. “Not for humans. You can-” he waved a hand distractedly “-show her around your home. Introduce her to your cat.”

“I haven't got a cat,” Sarah Jane protested.

“Oh, that's odd,” he said. “You always seemed like such a cat person to me. That's a shame. Well, all this standing around isn't good for Rose's health. I'll get out of the way so that you two can go relax and I'll see both of you in a couple of days.”

“Have fun, Doctor,” Rose said, a smile tugging at her mouth. He smiled back, delighted, and winked at her, his grin broadening when she blushed. He turned to Sarah Jane and tipped an imaginary hat to her. She still seemed a bit perplexed by their sudden arrival, but he really didn't have the time for more chit-chat, so he darted back into the TARDIS and shut the door, determined to focus on completing his investigation as quickly as possible so that he could be back with Rose before she had a chance to start missing him.

He double-checked on the radiation numbers – still there, still dangerous, still ridiculously easy to follow – and plugged the destination into the controls, trying to figure out what Sarah Jane's strange little look had been about. She _liked_ Rose, so it couldn't be that she was upset about Rose staying with her for a while. And if she was angry that he hadn't stayed longer, well, he'd _said_ that he would be coming back, so it wasn't like she wouldn't have the chance to spend some time with him.

Well, Sarah Jane had always had her little quirks that he'd never quite figured out. She was probably fussing about one of her female-centric issues. Though, looking back, it seemed obvious that she'd actually been rather right about most of those things. Huh. Strange that he hadn't picked up on that at the time.

Still, no time to worry about such things at the moment – the TARDIS was soon shuddering into place near where the radiation leak was occurring. The Doctor pulled up the outside view on the monitor.

He was on a street – definitely still London, and the signal was pointing toward one of the small flats crammed up in the neighborhood, one with a bright-blue door. Almost the color of the TARDIS, he noticed. There was a sign out front that simply read “Renova”.

A small, family-owned business was sending out this much radiation? Curiosier and curiosier.

Hmm. He wondered if Rose would like to meet good ol' Charles. He couldn't recall if she'd ever mentioned reading _Alice_ or any of his other work, but she must have done. Well, she'd have at least seen an adaptation at some point.

He'd have to ask her when he got back.

He slipped out of the TARDIS and strode up to the door of the company, pressing the bell button firmly. The door was opened by a young man – probably about twenty-three or four – who was dressed in something of a business suit.

“How can I help you?” he asked, sounding rather strained.

“Oh, I'm just here to carry out an inspection,” the Doctor said, whipping out his psychic paper and waving it about in front of the man's face.

“Health and safety?” the man squeaked, eyes widening. “But we should be checked off as passing.”

“If you can't handle a surprise inspection, I'll need to mark that down,” the Doctor said amiably, flipping the paper shut and putting it away. “I shouldn't need to tell you that things like that look bad in our records.”

“Sorry, it's just...” he looked behind him nervously and the Doctor could hear a female voice being raised. It sounded somehow familiar. “It's not the best time. We're in the middle of sacking a temp who wasn't working out well. You know how it is.”

“Why wasn't... she?... working out?” the Doctor asked, taking a step toward the door. The man blushed and stepped back so that he could come inside. The yelling was clearer now – whoever the woman was, she sounded very annoyed at being let go.

“Nothing to do with Health _or_ Safety,” the man assured him quickly.

“I can promise you, I wouldn't work here again if this were _the last place on **EARTH**_!” The owner of the very loud voice came around the corner of the hallway and the Doctor blinked.

She had dark, wavy red hair and a figure that quivered with outrage, and when she saw him, she stopped for a moment, and he saw her breath catch in her throat.

He could understand exactly how she felt.

This had been the last place he'd been expecting to run into Donna Noble.


	2. In which Rose has had more useful days.

Rose watched as the TARDIS slowly faded from sight. She hadn't seen it do that very often – she was usually on the inside, disappearing right along with it. And that noise... she'd heard that sound in her sleep so often over the last few years, startling awake in the middle of the night with her heart pounding and her hopes saying _maybe... maybe..._

Just as she'd seen his face so often in her dreams, his dark eyes fixed on hers and his lips parted in the middle of that sentence he'd run out of time to tell her. The memory of him had never left her, even when she had, ever so briefly, wanted nothing more than to forget everything about him.

“I'm so sorry,” Sarah Jane said. Rose wrinkled her nose up in confusion and turned to look at the woman, who was staring at the same bit of grass. “But it looks like you had several good years with him, at least. You can hold onto that.”

“What are you on about?” Rose asked.

“The Doctor,” Sarah Jane said, waving at where the TARDIS had been. She looked about as perplexed as Rose felt. “He just left you here.”

“He's coming back,” Rose said. They'd both been fairly clear on that point, she'd thought.

“Well, he _said_ that, yes,” Sarah Jane said, with a tiny laugh. “That doesn't make it true.”

“The Doctor wouldn't lie to me,” Rose said. This had not been the conversation that she'd been expecting to have with Sarah Jane.

“Oh, I'm sure that he means to come back,” she said. Rose blinked. “But once he's out there, he'll get distracted. He's like that.”

“All right, look. I appreciate your concern,” Rose said, trying not to sound annoyed. “But the Doctor's not going to get distracted from me.”

“He called me his best friend once,” she said, still in that irritatingly kind tone of voice. “And he said that he'd come back to get me, after he was done on Gallifrey, but he never did. I don't... I don't blame him for it, not anymore, but you can't think that you're immune to the consequences of his rather short attention span.”

“He's not some little kid,” Rose said. “Believe me, I just spent the last several years with one and the Doctor isn't like that. He's coming back.”

“I thought that way for years,” Sarah Jane said. “Eventually, I even concluded that he must have died to have forgotten about me. But he hadn't. He'd just... moved on.”

“Right. I don't want to imply anything about your relationship with the Doctor, but he hasn't left me behind. I got hurt and I'm recovering. He's coming back.” Rose stressed the last sentence.

“Well, if that's what you need to believe, I won't argue with you further,” Sarah Jane said. Rose resisted the very childish urge to stick out her tongue. “Come inside and have a cup of tea. I'll introduce you to my son.”

“You've got a kid?” Rose asked, momentarily distracted. “I didn't know that.”

“I only just adopted him this year,” Sarah Jane said, her mouth curving up in a glowing smile. “It's such a shame... I was actually rather hoping that he could meet the Doctor – he's such a bright lad and I know that they'd get on.”

“Well, he'll be able to,” Rose said. “In a couple of days, when the Doctor gets back.”

“If you say so.” Sarah Jane gave her a sympathetic look that Rose found a bit frustrating. Apparently, the only way that Sarah Jane would believe that the Doctor would be coming back was when he actually showed up on her doorstep. Still, it was hard to be all that angry at her for the assumption – that was what he'd done to her, after all. If she believed that he would come back for Rose when he hadn't done the same for Sarah Jane... it would probably hurt. And Rose didn't want that, either. So, she would just have to live with Sarah Jane's pity for a while.

“I'll go in and make something for us to eat, shall I? Join me when you're ready.” Sarah Jane didn't pause to wait for an answer, but swept back toward her house. Rose glanced again at where the TARDIS had stood, one last time, and then turned and started exploring a bit. It was a nice place, this. Big yard, long driveway, lots of very well-cared for shrubbery – cute little car. Rose hadn't had many chances to drive before she'd ended up in Pete's world, but she'd done a fair amount in her job with Torchwood, so she'd come to appreciate cars a bit. They couldn't hold a candle to the TARDIS but, when it came to long distances, they beat running.

She wandered out to the end of the driveway and looked around. It was a good neighborhood – Sarah Jane had mentioned having a son. This seemed like it would be a great place to raise a kid. Lots of space to run around, lots of other houses. Probably not too many people looking to rob someone or... well, any of the other things that could happen.

It looked like such a _safe_ place.

It was sort of making Rose's skin itch. She stood at the end of the driveway, holding onto the edge of Sarah Jane's brick wall, just staring out at all of the respectable and clean-looking houses. Too clean, really. Now, the TARDIS was clean, but still fairly ramshackle and thrown-together. All of this was just a bit too much for her tastes. It reminded her of when she'd moved out of Pete's and her mum had been after her to get a nice place a little ways out of town and how disappointed she'd been when Rose had gotten a small flat in the heart of the city instead.

 _“You're rich now, sweetheart,” she'd said. “You can afford to live anywhere. Why here?”_

She'd had a dozen reasons on the tip of her tongue, all of them masking the real one – because there wasn't any point in bothering to spend all that money on a big place if she wasn't planning on staying. She'd lived her entire life in Pete's world constantly prepared to leave, dressed for travel and always with a packed bag in the trunk of her car.

Because she'd never given up on going home. She'd never given up on the Doctor.

What would it be like to be one of the families living in that row of houses? With a yard and a sidewalk and two stories all to herself. And, she supposed, her family. If she'd said, “yes” to Mark and they'd ended up with a kid or two, what would her life have been like? Would she... _could_ she have ever truly been happy in a life like that or would she have forever dreamed of alien skies and a cool, familiar hand in hers?

Rose shivered and turned away – and there, standing on the sidewalk down the road, was her mystery blonde.

Right. Rose's day was _not_ going well so far and she wasn't going to stand around and wait for the future to happen. It was time to get some answers.

“Hello, Rose,” the woman said when Rose reached her. She looked sharper in the light of day, her features very finely drawn. “I wanted to-”

“No,” Rose said, putting her hands on her hips.

“What do you mean... no?”

“I mean 'no',” Rose said. “It's a simple enough word. Whatever you're planning on saying, I don't want to hear it.”

“But _you_ wanted me to tell you,” she said, that delicate nose of hers wrinkling up. Actually, now that Rose could see her properly, she rather reminded Rose of Reinette. Features like a doll's and big blue eyes. It wasn't the most reassuring comparison in the world.

“You know what I want you to tell me? Your name,” Rose said. “I want to know exactly who it is that I'm dealing with here.”

“You didn't say anything about that when I spoke to the future you earlier,” she said, with that same certain – almost haughty, really – bearing that she'd had during their first meeting.

“I don't care,” Rose said. The woman angled her head slightly, looking a bit puzzled. Well... good. “Your last warning – if I can call it that – was useless. Over a thousand people _died_ on that ship. If you can't tell me who you are and exactly why I should believe anything you say, then you can just turn around and leave.”

The woman pressed her lips together and studied Rose for a moment. Rose didn't shift at all under her regard, her anger overcoming any possible uncertainty.

She took the time to study the woman a bit – she was wearing cream again, just dark enough not to make her pale skin look horribly washed-out. Her make-up was light, almost nonexistent, and she wore tiny gold studs in her ears. And there was something in her eyes, something that Rose couldn't put her finger on, but it reminded her of someone that she'd met before.

Finally, the woman sighed, her shoulders slumping down a bit. Rose felt the slightest hint of a smile touch her lips.

“My name is Holly Cole,” the woman said, sounding frustrated. Well, it was about time that someone other than Rose felt that way.

“And why should I trust you?” Rose asked. “Why should I believe you when you tell me that you've met me before?”

“I already told you something that no one else knows. What more do you want?” Holly took in a sharp breath, then let it out in a rush. “What else am I supposed to say?”

“Give me a reason to trust you,” Rose said. “A reason to believe in you.”

“Would you like a character reference?” she asked, one eyebrow arching up, her tone tinted with sarcasm. Rose just stared back at her, not giving an inch. Holly's eyes narrowed and then she nodded, as if making a decision. “I... I believe that I also know a friend of yours. A certain captain who has quite a way with the ladies... _and_ the gentlemen.”

“How do you know him?” Rose asked. There was another long, assessing pause from Holly.

“I used to... work with him,” Holly said. “In his former occupation, let's say.”

“You know that I'm going to ask him about you,” Rose said. If she hadn't been watching so closely, she wouldn't noticed the tiny hitch in Holly's breathing at her words before the woman's mask slid firmly back into place.

“Please do,” Holly said, calmly. “You can tell me what he says about me.”

“All right, so maybe you know a friend of mine and maybe you know me in the future,” Rose said. “Why the big spy routine? Why not just come out and say who you are and what I need to know?”

“We're all feeling our way around in the dark, Rose,” Holly said. “You weren't entirely clear about when I should tell you certain things. Maybe because only you know exactly how... determined you can be when you want to know something.”

“Why couldn't I have gotten _some_ useful bit of information about the Titanic?” Rose asked, fighting to keep her emotions out of her voice. “All those people and I couldn't save them.”

“I'm sorry,” Holly said. “I wish that I had more of the answers for you.”

“Where's the Doctor?” Rose asked. Holly's lips parted in surprise. “When you meet me, in the future, where's the Doctor?”

“He... he wasn't with you,” Holly said.

“But I told you about him,” Rose said. “I told you about the Time Vortex. Why would I pick _that_ moment? There's any number of things that I could have had you say to prove yourself to me. Why that?”

“Only you would know the answer to that,” Holly said.

“Except that I don't,” Rose said. “I don't know what's going to happen in the future and... the Doctor would say that I shouldn't. Because it... it might change things or trap me into something that I don't really want to do. So, thank you, Holly Cole, for trying to help me, but I don't want it. I'll fumble through my own, thanks.”

“But you can't,” Holly said, her big blue eyes appealing to Rose for a second chance. “Rose, you have to listen to me.”

“That's just it,” Rose said. “I don't.”

“I'm only trying to help you,” Holly said. “That's all that I want to do.”

“Well, the next time you see 'me', ask her what you did wrong,” Rose said, then she turned around and walked back up Sarah Jane's driveway, not looking back. She didn't hear any footsteps behind her. She went in through Sarah Jane's front door and glanced around – it was so much warmer and more domestic than she'd have expected before learning that Sarah Jane had adopted a kid. Though... that jacket slung over the couch didn't look like it would fit Sarah Jane but it certainly wasn't a _boy's_ coat, either.

“Who are you, then?”

Rose looked up and saw a young girl coming down the stairway attached to the main hall – she had thick and dark hair pulled back into a ponytail and she was wearing jeans and a beige shirt.

“Oh! I'm Rose. I'm a friend of Sarah Jane's,” Rose said, holding out her hand. The girl stopped on the last step and gave Rose a cautious look, and then she gave Rose's hand a good, solid shake. “And you?”

“I'm a friend of hers, too,” the girl said, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her jeans. Then she blushed a bit and looked down. “Sorry... I'm Maria. Maria Jackson. I'm a neighbor.”

“That's nice,” Rose said, glancing up the stairway. “She didn't mention that I'd arrived? She said that she was going to cook tea.”

“I've just been upstairs with Luke,” Maria said, with a bit of an awkward-looking smile. “Haven't seen Sarah Jane yet today.”

“Are you... do you babysit her son, then?” Rose asked. Maria's eyebrows pulled together and then she burst out laughing. Rose smiled a bit in return. “I'm guessing not.”

“Luke's my age,” Maria said. “I go to school with him. Didn't you know that?”

“I haven't seen her for a few years,” Rose said. “She said that she'd adopted, but I'd assumed that he would be younger than... well, younger than he is, I suppose.”

“So... you know her from years past, then,” Maria said. Rose bit back on a wider smile – she could recognize someone fishing for information from a mile away.

“It depends on how you look at it,” Rose said, realizing that she didn't actually know how long it had been for Sarah Jane since they'd last met. For Rose, it had been over nine years, but for Sarah Jane, it might have only been one or two years. “You probably know her a lot better than I do.”

“Maybe,” she said. “I just-”

“Have you decided to come in, then?” Sarah Jane said cheerily, coming down the hall from what Rose could only assume was the kitchen area. Her welcoming smile only widened when she spotted Maria. “Ah, Maria, you've met Rose. Is Luke still upstairs?”

“He said that he was going to be there for a while. He had to consult- consult some textbooks,” Maria said, stumbling a bit over the middle of the sentence. There appeared to be something going on in this house that was a bit of a secret. “For that... maths project that he's been working on.”

“Oh, you can tell Rose,” Sarah Jane said, reaching out and touching Maria's arm. “She's also a friend of the Doctor's and she knows quite a bit about aliens already.”

“Huh. Good,” Maria said, though Rose reckoned that she looked a bit disappointed. “Luke's still busy with Mr. Smith. They're working on some sort of orbital guiding system. I didn't really understand it.”

“Who's Mr. Smith?” Rose asked Sarah Jane. “Did you get married?”

“He's an alien computer,” Sarah Jane said, with a laugh. “It's just a name.”

“He's very powerful,” Maria added. “He can figure out just about anything.”

“Really?” Rose asked. That sounded... that sounded like it could be exactly what she needed. “I know that I haven't been here for very long, but... Sarah Jane, can I use your computer?”

Meeting Sarah Jane's Mr. Smith was an interesting experience – she'd never met a computer that was quite that... well, that full of itself. It reminded her of the Doctor, in some ways. Brisk and certain of its knowledge and ever-so-slightly superior to those people who _didn't_ know how to calculate the speed of a fractal mile or... whatever.

But it didn't have any of the Doctor's warmth or his charm. Instead, there was a brittle coldness to the voice that came out of its speakers. Sarah Jane's adopted son, Luke, was a much more welcome presence, though he stayed shy and quiet even after Sarah Jane introduced Rose to him.

Her attic was quite a large space, but with the four of them in there, it managed to feel a bit crowded.

 

“How can I be of service?” Mr Smith asked and Rose leaned up against the wall, studying it. Sarah Jane just tilted her head and smiled, perfectly at ease. She'd had that little robot dog that the Doctor had given her, Rose recalled. And now she had an advanced alien computer. She seemed to like robotic things... or at least collect them.

“Rose would like you ask you a favor,” Sarah Jane said.

“I want to find someone,” Rose said. “I want to see if she told me the truth about herself. Her name is Holly Cole.”

“I've located a Canadian singer by that name,” Mr. Smith said, after a moment. “She specializes in jazz.”

“No... she was definitely British,” Rose said.

“I've found no... notable persons,” Mr. Smith said.

“How about everyone else? The ones that aren't notable,” Rose requested.

“As you wish,” Mr. Smith said and the main screen lit up, images starting to slowly cascade down. Rose glanced around, looking for _her_ Holly.

And... right there.

“The blonde woman, second down in the third row,” Rose said. “Can you bring up her information?”

“Processing,” Mr. Smith said. There was a long pause.

“That's odd,” Luke said, softly. Rose glanced at him curiously. “It's just a basic search... he shouldn't need any processing time.”

“She looks familiar,” Maria said. “I've seen that face somewhere before.”

“I have... indications of deliberate misinformation,” Mr. Smith announced. “This particular Holly Cole only has truly verifiable records going back two years.”

“That would fit with what she told me,” Rose said. “If she's... who she says she is, she shouldn't have a real record. What can you tell me about her recent activities?”

“She co-owns several small businesses with her husband. He has the same peculiarities in his report that she does. I suspect that his name, which is given as 'Lucky', is no more real than hers,” Mr. Smith said. “And his image isn't processing at all. It's been corrupted.”

“A husband,” Rose muttered. “Or a partner. Jack expected me to have a partner.”

“I'm sorry, but what exactly is going on?” Sarah Jane asked.

“Holly Cole told me that she has future knowledge of... me,” Rose said. “She said that she'd met me in the future and that I wanted to pass on a message to myself. When I questioned her about it, she implied that she was a Time Agent, which would probably mean that she's really from the fifty-first century.”

“Time Agent?” Sarah Jane asked. “Can we trust them?”

“I doubt it,” Rose said. “I have a friend – Jack. Captain Jack, and he used to be a Time Agent and it all went horribly wrong for him.”

“Would that be...” Sarah Jane paused and Rose looked over at her, lifting an eyebrow in question. “Jack _Harkness_?”

“You've met him?” Rose asked.

“Oh, no,” Sarah Jane said. “But his... reputation proceeds him. He's the head of Torchwood, these days. I've never really gotten involved, but I do know a bit about them. Too many guns, though.”

“The Doctor would definitely agree with you there,” Rose said, looking at the small bits of information about Holly Cole that Mr. Smith had up on the screen.

“You wouldn't?” Sarah Jane asked, sounding surprised.

Rose glanced over at Maria and Luke, who were listening in with interest.

“Let's just say that I've learned it's harder to do without guns if you don't have an alien on your side,” Rose said, wishing that she just hadn't brought it up. “I prefer not to use them, but sometimes there's no choice.”

“I can't believe that,” Sarah Jane said, softly but with conviction. “There's always a choice, Rose.”

Rose looked up and met Sarah Jane's gaze, wishing that she could still believe that, too. There was _usually_ a choice, of course.

But not always.

“You said... if you _don't_ have an alien,” Sarah Jane said, slowly. “But you've been with the Doctor, haven't you?”

“That's a long and boring story. Nothing we'd want to get into now,” Rose said. She turned back to Mr. Smith. “Is there anything else you can tell me?”

“Most of the data that I'm finding has been falsified,” Mr. Smith said. “It's very convincing work – I don't think that any computer designed by a human would spot the flaws – but there isn't any solid information that I would recommend you trust.”

“Well, thanks anyway,” Rose said. She'd need to go back to Plan A, then -- asking Jack.

“Do you think you're up for that tea now?” Sarah Jane asked.

“You've made tea?” Luke sounded so dreadfully excited that Rose laughed. “That's wonderful. I haven't had anything since breakfast.”

“Why didn't you eat at school?” Sarah Jane asked, reaching forward and brushing her hand over Luke's hair – it looked so natural. Rose still didn't know how long Sarah Jane had had Luke in her life, but they clearly fit together in their lives. If she'd just run into the two of them on the street, she wouldn't have had a problem guessing that Sarah Jane was his mum.

“Clyde was hungry,” Luke said, and he and Sarah Jane and Maria headed down the stairs. “I couldn't let him suffer.”

“Clyde is always hungry,” Maria said, practically stumbling over Luke, she was so close behind him. “No matter how much he eats. That's a terrible reason, Luke.”

Rose paused at the top of the stairs, then she turned back to take one last, long look at Sarah Jane's computer. As she watched, it pulled back into the wall, leaving just an ordinary-looking attic in its wake. It looked like Sarah Jane's life was a bit more interesting that Rose had been thinking, if she had need of a great big alien computer.

She pulled out her phone and dialed the number that Jack had given her before he'd left, biting her lip in frustration when it went to voicemail. She left a brief message asking him to call her back, then headed down the stairs to have tea with Sarah Jane.

Hopefully, the Doctor was having a more successful day.


	3. In which Donna Noble's heart skips a beat.

It was the tenth temp job that she'd taken since the wedding that never happened, and only the fifth where there had seemed to be a genuine alien sort of lead once she'd gotten into position, so Donna was a little bit annoyed when Mr. Young told her that he didn't think they'd need her services any more, even if it might still work with her plans.

Okay, 'a little annoyed' might have been something of an understatement.

Donna tilted her head and looked at the dent her stapler had left in the wall. Mr. Young was staring too, mouth gaping.

“You've left your mouth open. Wouldn't really recommend that in this office. Too many bugs,” Donna said, wondering if the stapler still worked. It would be a shame to waste the money. Mr. Young's mouth snapped shut with a dull smacking sound and his face reddened.

“First, you steal from me,” he said, puffing up his chest. It didn't really succeed in making him look any bigger. “Now? You break my walls and you insult me?”

“Steal?” Donna protested, shaking her hair back and standing up straight. The best defense, after all. “How dare you accuse _me_ of stealing!”

“I saw you on the security feed!” he said. “My files, you were going through them. It's on camera.”

Donna parted her lips, then pressed them back together. The front door buzzer went off. Neither of them moved an inch.

“That's not stealing,” Donna said, finally. “I'm your temporary administrative assistant. I need to look at your files. It's part of the job.”

“Not the files in my private office,” he said, pointing a finger in vaguely the right direction. “There's a reason that I didn't give you a key to that door.”

“It was unlocked,” Donna tried. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Young's son, Emmanuel, sneak down the hallway toward the front door. She wasn't sure if he was checking to see if anyone was there or just making a run for it.

“It locks automatically,” he countered.

“Maybe you left it open,” she said.

“You picked the lock,” he said, waving his arms. “ _It's on camera!_ ”

“They can do all sorts of things with computers these days,” Donna said. “Are you sure that it isn't faked?”

“Out!” he yelled. Donna opened her mouth and he said again, louder, “Out!”

“Fine, I'll leave,” she said, striding toward the door to the hall. “But I'm not coming back.”

“Good!” he said. “I don't want you in here ever again!”

Donna huffed loudly, picking up her tiny box of belongings and heading down the hallway, swiveling about to shout one last thing. “Well, I wouldn't work here again if this were _the last place on **EARTH!**_ ”

She turned around again, feeling rather satisfied despite the argument. Even if what she'd found didn't turn out to be anything important, it would be another odd occurrence marked off her list. Dead frog place, sorted. If she kept going, eventually she would find him again. Maybe not today, but one day. She'd be ready. Prepared. Absolutely-

And that's when she noticed the man in the entryway.

Her heart stopped working, just for a moment.

There was no mistaking him: still far too tall and skinny, like a normal man who'd been stretched until unattractive; still with hair that stood up a good few inches, bristling like it might come alive and eat innocent bystanders; and still wearing the same brown suit that he'd had on over a year ago, when she'd met him that once.

The Doctor.

It was only the residual anger in her system that kept her from immediately leaping on him with a hug. Instead, she gave him an unsteady wink and swept past him and Emmanuel with her things.

Once out the door, she took a few deep breaths and then started looking for that blue box of his.

It took her at least five minutes to find it down an alley two houses down, right next to a half-torn 'Vote for Saxon' sign. Such a shame, what had happened to that bloke. One day, he was their new Prime Minister, all full of sparkle and shine, and then the next, he was shot down by terrorists pretending to be friendly aliens. The Doctor must be so frustrated that he hadn't been around to stop that. He would have liked Mr. Saxon. _Everyone_ had liked Harry Saxon.

She'd even gone out and voted for him. First time she'd ever gotten around to voting and her man had ended up dead. That was just the way of it, though, in politics.

She leaned up against the door to the TARDIS and checked her watch.

She let out a sigh and glanced up the alley.

No sign of him.

She checked her watch again.

What was he _doing_ in there, anyway? Interrogating the entire family? Donna smirked a bit, patting her coat. Young had spent so much effort getting mad that she'd so much as looked at the files that he hadn't noticed that she'd switched them out with blank paper. He'd really thought that she didn't know about the cameras. One little twist of the body and she'd been able to hide what she was _really_ doing. Sure, it would have been better if she hadn't gotten caught at all, but at least this way, she had something to go on.

Hopefully, the Doctor would get out here before Young realized what she'd done. She had the feeling that he wouldn't be too happy.

Donna checked her watch yet again and put her box down on the ground, tired of lugging it around.

Well, wasn't it just like a man to be late?

Donna tried the door of the TARDIS, letting out an annoyed sigh when it stayed firmly shut. First order of business, she'd need to get a key from him so that she could open the bloody door by herself. There wouldn't be any more of this waiting about outside for him.

There'd been something different about him.

She hadn't really realized it, inside, because she'd been so concerned with not ruining either of their covers, but something about him had changed. He'd seemed... younger, almost, which actually managed to make him even _less_ attractive, and she hadn't believed that was possible. Definitely younger, especially around the eyes.

Maybe he'd had surgery.

Did aliens have surgery?

Well, why wouldn't they? Plenty of people ended up looking _like_ aliens after too much surgery, after all, so it might as well go the other way 'round, too. She'd been reading, just the other day, about a woman who'd had so much surgery that her eyelids had ended up inside out. Now that would be even scarier than that red spider-queen had been.

Donna shuddered. She heard footsteps and readied herself to start running, one way or another. The thin man who came down around the corner couldn't be anyone but the Doctor, though.

This time, she didn't quell her initial impulse – she went straight up to him and enveloped him in a warm, tight hug. She could hear him let out a tiny laugh and when she pulled back, he was grinning his head off.

“So, Donna Noble, would you fancy another look inside my ship?” he teased, in that light, almost flirtatious way he had. He wasn't half charming, really. If he were stronger looking, had a bit more... _something_ to him, instead of being the sort of bloke who could blow away in a strong wind, then he might actually manage to be something close to handsome. “You didn't get very long to admire her, last time. You rushed off to Christmas dinner.”

“You could have come with,” Donna said, smiling at him. He looked so much more _relaxed_ , that was it. He looked like someone had taken a great heavy weight off his shoulders. From what she'd remembered of him, that could only mean one thing. “Doctor... did you... did you find her again?”

He lit up. There really wasn't any other way to describe it – the corners of his eyes crinkled with happiness and his mouth tugged up at the corners and he just looked like he was about to share the greatest, best secret in the world.

“She found me,” he said, quietly, almost solemnly. “Isn't that brilliant?”

“Is she waiting in the ship?” Donna asked, only barely resisting the urge to rap at the door. “Am I about to meet her?”

“No, but... we should probably go in,” the Doctor said, thoughtfully. “Do you hear that?”

Donna shook her head at first, only hearing the two of them breathing and shifting about and generally existing, but then she _did_ hear something. It sounded a bit like shouting, a little off in the distance. The Doctor continued to look stupidly delighted.

“Well, what are you waiting for, you great lackwit?” Donna asked, poking him in the shoulder. She was the one who'd put her life on the life in there and he was smiling away like an idiot! “Unlock the door before they get here.”

“I'm doing it!” he protested, rubbing a bit at where her finger had been. He pulled out a key from his pockets and opened the door for both of them – Donna picked up her box, rushed in, and yanked him in after her, shutting the door with a clunk.

“That lock'll hold?” Donna asked, giving it a suspicious glance.

“Against one small businessman? I think she'll be able to handle the pressure,” the Doctor said. Well, in that case, it was time to discuss more important things.

“All right, then, talk. Why isn't Rose here in the TARDIS?”

“She's with a friend.”

“What, you've got her back and she already wants to leave?” Donna asked. “That's not a good sign.”

“She didn't- she's recovering,” he said, in a tone of great offense. And what was she _supposed_ to think? It's not as though she could read minds.

“What happened?” Donna asked, more softly.

“She got hurt,” he said, firmly, and it reminded her of that day they'd met, when he'd stared at Rose's shirt in her hand and got the most terrible and fierce look on his face. “She's getting better. There's nothing more to say.”

That was a brick wall if ever she'd heard one. She'd just have to stick around and wait for him to open up again, it seemed.

“What about you?” He gave her a hard glance and she shifted nervously under his gaze. “How are you feeling? Have you been accepting any drinks from strange men recently?”

“What?” Donna asked, trying to decipher why the hell he cared and what business it was of his, anyway. He pulled out that sonic-y device of his... sonic screwdriver, that's what he'd called it... and started scanning her, like he'd done before, at Christmas.

“The reason that I was at that office was because I was picking up on some very peculiar radiation and it bore a resemblance to Huon particles,” the Doctor said. Donna shivered.

“You think someone's poisoning me again?” she asked. “Why would they do that?”

“Apparently, they wouldn't,” the Doctor said, meeting her eyes. “You're clean, Donna. You're in no danger... and that means that you weren't what was drawing me to that place. There's something else going on there.”

“Dead frogs,” Donna offered. He blinked a couple of times, his mouth falling ever-so-slightly open. “I went over there because I was reading up on some reports and I found out that all these frogs - more than should even be around - were turning up in a five-mile circle around that place, dead. That office is at the centermost spot.”

“They must be particularly vulnerable to the radiation,” the Doctor said, almost absently. He didn't seem to be talking to her anymore, was mostly just thinking aloud. “Which means... what does that mean? Frogs... what is it about _frogs_?”

He hurried over to one of his consoles and started playing around with the controls, muttering to himself as he twisted and pulled and studied what the monitor said. Donna parked herself by the railing, putting the box down on the nearby seat, and watched him – even just standing in one place, he was a constant flurry of motion, especially his mouth, which never really stopped.

“Someone is trying to recreate regeneration, but for humans,” he said, slowing down slightly. “Cell replacement and renewal... 'Renova', of course! It _means_ 'renewal'. They aren't even trying to hide it. Why not? It's not a surprise that they're trying to stave off death... that's a common enough human obsession... but their technique is far more advanced than anyone here should be capable of... so, who is helping them? And why? Donna,” and he was looking at her now, the intensity of his focus almost frightening. “Why are you here?”

“I told you, dead frogs,” she said.

“But why were you researching and reading reports?” he asked. “I thought you were planning on exploring and walking in the dust and... oh, striking out on other great endeavors.”

“I did that,” she said. “For a while. And I found out that it wasn't what I was expecting. There were all sorts of rules and all this nonsense about staying with the group and, even when I left the group... I couldn't speak the language. And everyone who spoke English... they only ever said the things that I wasn't allowed to do. Not like you. So... I decided to look for you. To accept your offer.”

“My offer,” he said, tilting his head slightly and his forehead wrinkling up slightly. Then, his expression cleared. “You want to come with me?”

“I did,” Donna said. “But I understand if... if you've changed your mind.”

“Why would I do that?” he asked, leaning back against the console.

“Rose is back,” she said. “You might not want the extra company.”

“Oh, no,” he said. “Of course, I still want you to come. Rose will _love_ you. She's very good with people.” He said that last bit in a very serious, confiding tone. “There are so many places that I could show you. So many planets that you would adore. Say that you'll come, won't you?”

“Yes, I'd love to,” Donna said, deep joy welling up inside. She reached forward again and grabbed at the Doctor's arm and they shared another long, tight hug. Then she cleared her throat and pulled away. “But first we've got to deal with this 'Renova' thing, yeah?”

“Oh, it should be easy enough,” the Doctor said. “I just need to find out what sort of alien is feeding them their information, stop it, and then take you over to meet Rose. Then I'm thinking about a nice trip to the past for your first go. How do you feel about Rome?”

“That it's probably much more interesting in person than in dusty old books,” Donna said. “Do you really think that it's going to be that simple? Finding out what's behind all this?”

“I told Rose that I'd be back in two days at the most,” he said blithely. “I don't plan on letting her down.”

As if that were the end of it, as if his absolute certainty was the only thing that mattered. For such a bright bloke, he was very good at only seeing what he wanted to see.

“All right, then, where did you want to start?” she asked.

“Hmm? Oh, I'll... investigate,” he said, waving his hand unhelpfully. “In a generally investigative manner.”

“Do you think some of Mr. Young's private files would help?” she asked.

“Oh, I'd wager so,” he said. He looked at her curiously. “Do you think I should go back in there? I'm not sure they'll believe that I need to do another inspection.”

“No need,” she said, quirking an eyebrow. “I don't know if you noticed, but I was getting fired when you showed up. Weren't you wondering about the reason?”

“Oh! Well, I'd just assumed...” he trailed off when he noticed the way she was glaring at him. “What was the reason?”

“He caught me looking at his files,” she said, proudly. She strode over to her box of things and grabbed a handful of papers. “Didn't notice me switching them out for blanks, though.”

The Doctor took one of the folders from her and glanced through it, a smile growing on his face.

“There's mention here of a mysterious Mr. S,” he said. “That'll be our alien. Well done, Donna Noble!”

“Well, I'm the best,” Donna said, fighting back the warmth his words spread through her – pink cheeks looked horrible on redheads, as her mum always told her. “The magnificent Donna Noble, that's me.”

“Yes, it is,” he agreed, taking another file from the box and flipping through it. Donna lost the battle with her blush, but he wasn't looking, so it was all right. “Never anything but Mr. S. I wonder if... hmm.”

“If what?” Donna asked.

“What's the latest date on those files?” he asked, reaching into the box and scanning through the files inhumanly fast. Then, he answered himself before she could say a word. “Nothing about him after more than a year ago. It looks like they were working his supervision until then and they've been independent since and it _would_ fit with something else he'd started... but why would he be researching ways to make humans live longer? Why would he care? What's the catch?”

“What are you babbling on about?” Donna asked.

“It doesn't matter,” the Doctor said, snapping the file shut. “He's dead now. I think that he put this in place back when he was gaining power and they just never bothered stopping after he died. It'll be a simple clean-up job.”

“That sounds too easy,” Donna said.

“Let's not invite trouble,” he said. She hadn't known him for very long, but that didn't sound too much like the man that she _had_ known. Then again, if Rose had just gotten hurt... maybe he was being a bit less scary and reckless these days. “All I need to do is come up with something that'll neutralize the radiation and render their machines useless. Without the... without Mr. S around to fix things, they'll be lost. Unless you think that one of the Young family is capable of fixing a cyclical cell renewal chamber.”

“Well... if they...” Donna thought about it for a moment. “No. Not really.”

“Hmm. I'd better sneak in a self-replicating breakdown code, just in case,” the Doctor said, thoughtfully. “Sometimes humans can be surprisingly bright.”

“Oi!” Donna protested, smacking him on the shoulder. “None of that!”

“What?” he said. “What'd I do?”

“You need to ask?”

“But... but that was a compliment,” he said.

“You know what else it was? It was condescending and arrogant,” she said. “I may not have the brain of a Time Lord, but that doesn't make it a surprise when I... or any other human!...shows a bit of intelligence.”

“It really wasn't meant as an insult,” he said.

“I don't care,” she said. “It sounded like one. Pay more attention.”

“Yes, ma'am,” he said, backing up a step and pretending to be afraid, but he did look a bit more respectful. It would do. At least for now.

“All right, then,” she said. “Tell me how you're going to take care of all of this in less than a day.”

He grinned at her and then opened his mouth, words spilling out almost faster than she could keep up with them.

Still, she was determined to try.


	4. In which the Doctor isn't pretty and Donna collects some paperweights.

The Doctor let out a triumphant cry as he slotted the last component of the neutralization device into place.

“You're finally finished?” Donna asked.

“What do you mean, finally?” the Doctor asked, glancing over her. “If anyone else were in this room – not that they _would_ be, naturally, but if they were – you wouldn't be looking at a completed static-radiation neutralizer right now, you'd be looking at a pile of parts and someone with no clue how to put them together into a working prototype.”

“Really?” Donna asked, checking her nails. What for, he couldn't even begin to guess, but it was a touch irritating. “Anyone else at all? There's not a single soul in the whole, wide universe who could even begin to make it?”

“Well, considering that I've not actually met every single person... even considering that... no. There isn't,” the Doctor said. “You have absolutely no comprehension of how complex this machine is and, quite frankly, your current science doesn't even have the vocabulary to properly explain it.”

“If our Earth science is so inferior, I can't imagine why you even bother to come here,” Donna snapped. “Unless it's to show off how much better you think you are.”

“Your mood wasn't this bad earlier,” the Doctor said.

“By earlier, would you mean eight hours ago?” Donna asked. “During which time, my raid on your kitchen resulted in one box of half-eaten biscuits and no milk?”

“You're the one afraid to go outside,” he said, waving toward the door. He might be feeling a bit on edge himself – the longer this took, the more certain it was that Rose would manage to find trouble. And, while he was fully confident in her ability to escape from danger under normal circumstances, she _was_ still injured and might believe herself more ready to leap back into action than was actually the case.

“Well, you could just move the ship to a safer location, further away from Renova,” Donna told him, sitting down grumpily in the middle of the bench. “Then I could go and pick something up.”

“I already said 'no'.”

“You never said why.”

“I didn't realize it was necessary,” he said, biting off the words.

She glared at him with an entirely unwarranted amount of anger. He controlled the desire to sigh and went on to explain. “I made one jump from where Rose is to here... and that was following the radiation trail. Once we arrived here, that other radiation that's mixed in with the Huon particles began to interact with the TARDIS and her engines. Until we stop that machine, it's not safe to move her. She's overcharged. She could end up anywhere or anywhen. We could end up four years in the future or a dozen into the past or on the fifth moon of Mru Six during the Emerald Rebellion.”

“But... since we can travel in time... we could just go back, couldn't we?” she asked. The question itself was innocent enough, but her tone was ready to rip his arms off.

“What part of 'no' is unclear?” he asked, sharply. “We're not moving until the radiation's faded. There's no discussion on the matter. It's my ship. My rules.”

Donna stared at him for a moment, her arms crossed and her face looking fairly cross as well. Then, her expression softened.

“This is about Rose,” she said, with that perceptiveness that was, in turns, annoying or soothing. “You're afraid that you won't get back to her at the right time. That you'll miss out on even more of her life.”

Could he really be blamed for that?

He'd lost eight already. Eight of the very few years that he could have with Rose were simply _gone_ and he could never, ever get them back. The human lifespan was laughably short, in ways that he'd never allowed himself to think about before... before Rose.

He swallowed hard and kept his voice even.

“It's... a concern,” he said. “It's a risk that I'm not willing to take.”

“All right,” she said, her anger simply gone now, and that... that sort of reaction from her was exactly what had made her such a comfort during those first lost hours after saying goodbye to Rose. “I can understand that. When are we going to... take care of the problem?”

“I'm monitoring the house,” he said, relieved to get back to the issue at hand. “Tracking the alien life signs. When they all indicate deep sleep, we'll break in.”

“What do you mean, aliens?” she asked. “There's only humans in there.”

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, leant back against the railing and waited for her to get it. She looked at him like he was mad, her face scrunching slightly in confusion.

The light dawned on her only a few moments later.

“Right,” she said. “You're not human. We're all aliens to you.”

“Yes, you are. You're also the most _interesting_ aliens that I've encountered in my life, which should make you feel better, as I've met quite a few,” he said, quite sincerely. “So full of life and possibility. You survive so much horror and change. You never stop thinking and growing and evolving.”

“You really do like us that much,” Donna said. There was a bit of wonder in her voice.

“Is it such a surprise?” he asked. It wasn't as though he hid his affection for their species.

“Maybe. I don't know,” she said, looking away from him. “I look at the world... I remember what Lance said about me. He thought I was shallow but there's so many people in this world that are just like me... just like how I used to be.”

“Most humans are capable of rising to the moment,” he said, gently. “Some are capable of a greatness beyond anything I've seen in my own people. I told you about Rose and she is... so compassionate and brave and... brilliant in too many ways to categorize. And after I met you, I ran into this woman... Martha Jones... and she inspired an entire world to believe that they could make a miracle happen. Another friend of mine, Jack, was willing to give up his life so that I could work for a few more minutes on a way to stop a monster. There are so many names that I could tell you, Donna Noble, so many humans who have done great things. Don't underestimate yourselves.”

“What about your people?” she asked, glancing up to meet his gaze. Her eyes were very blue and clear and it felt like she could see things that he didn't particularly want her to know. “Were they really not able to be that wonderful? Because I've met you, Doctor, and I don't... don't take this the wrong way, but you're a very good man.”

“The wrong way?” he asked. Then he chuckled, so glad to have met a woman like this. Belief like Martha's was impressive and humbling and he couldn't have made it through the last year without her, but Donna's willingness to poke fun at him was rather... refreshing. “Don't take it as too much of a compliment?”

“Exactly. Because you're still blind and stupid and... reckless and scary and everything else that I said at Christmas before last,” she said. Yes, refreshing and occasionally painful. He did recall that she'd been rather unhappy with him at times, that Christmas. Perhaps he'd been a bit colder than he might have been, though he still stood by his choice. The Racnoss children would have completely devoured the Earth. “You're all of those things. But you help people. You helped me.”

“I didn't do anything,” he said.

“You saved my life.”

“You saved mine.”

“No, I didn't,” she said, shaking her head slightly. “When did I ever save your life?”

 _When I stood in front of the Racnoss Queen and wanted nothing more than to kill off the last of my cursed kind along with hers,_ he didn't say. _When Rose was the only thought in my head and I wanted to die... not to regenerate, but to truly die... because I believed that I would never see her again and that belief was driving me mad._

“I'm just not a very good swimmer,” he said vaguely. She gave him an odd look and then, thankfully, dropped the subject.

“How much longer do we need to wait?” she asked him.

“Only one person still up and about,” he said, checking the screen.

“That'll be Emmanuel,” she said. “He stays up late on the computer.”

“Of course he does, good old Emmanuel,” the Doctor muttered, trying to remember if he'd heard that name earlier. That was just the sort of personal detail that Rose was so good at getting out of people. “Do you happen to know when he usually goes to sleep?”

“Sorry,” she said.

“Then we're stuck watching the monitor,” he said. He plopped himself down next to her on the bench and put up his legs, staring at the screen and waiting for that last signal to switch over. He glanced over at Donna – she was staring at the screen, too, with a bit of a distant look on her face. “What are you thinking?”

She startled a bit and shot him an uncertain look.

“Just... from the outside, my life hasn't looked much different since I met you,” she said. He narrowed his eyes thoughtfully and nodded at her to continue. She cleared her throat. “I took those vacations and they just weren't _right_. They didn't make me happy. So, I started looking for you. I went to temp at places where I'd found some hint of weird activity and I would check to see if there was any sign of you. To my mum, though, it looks the same as it's always done. She's just as after me to get a 'real job' as she ever was. And I don't... I changed so much when I met you, Doctor, and she can't see it.”

“Then she's not looking,” he said, reaching over and clasping Donna's hand with his own. She glanced up at him and there was a hint of a smile there, now.

She shifted a bit closer to him on the seat.

“So, Rose is back,” she said, and the Doctor raised an eyebrow, uncertain where she was going. “How'd it happen?”

“She found me,” he said. _She looked into the Time Vortex and saw a way that she'd be able to get back to me in the future and laid a trail for herself, in both universes. I gave up on ever seeing her again but she never ever gave up on me_. “She followed an alien lizard through a tunnel between the dimension she'd been trapped in and this one.”

“Oh,” Donna said. She sighed loudly and slumped down on the seat, her shoulder bumping up against his. With the kind of nonsensical behavior that was common in humans, she'd moved away from the part of the seat that had a headrest, yet she clearly wanted to rest her head. Rose didn't do that, exactly – she tended to lay her head down on the Doctor's shoulder instead, which he didn't object to – but she would forget to get her favorite shirt washed and then complain when it wasn't clean. Humans were so irrational at times. He should be used to it after all these years, but they still managed to surprise him. Perhaps that was why he was so fond of them. They were so full of odd little traits... Rose even more so than most.

“That's what she does,” he said, quietly, just thinking out loud now.

“Follows alien lizards?”

“Creates miracles,” he said. “Well, as close to a miracle as life ever gets.”

“You don't believe in God?” Donna asked and she even sounded surprised.

“You do?” he countered. “I showed you the formation of the Earth, Donna. There wasn't a god there. Just rock and the stuff of stars. There isn't some grand creator out there... there doesn't need to be.”

“You don't think that some things are meant to happen?” she asked.

“I don't have to think it,” he said. “I know. That's what it means to be a Time Lord, Donna. I know when something is meant to happen and I know when a situation is... open to change. I can feel it, inside. And it wasn't _god_ who brought Rose back to me... it was Rose herself who did that.”

“Who brought Rose to you in the first place?” she asked.

“There may not be a god, but there is such a thing as good luck,” he said, softly. The light on the monitor shifted slightly. “And we're having some right now. Your Emmanuel is entering deep sleep.”

He hopped up and then turned to extend an arm to Donna.

“Shall we?” he asked. She stood up and took his arm, grinning.

“I'm always up for a spot of breaking-and-entering.”

Spending time with Donna was just as unexpectedly delightful this time as it had been the first – he'd wondered, once or twice during his time with Martha, if Donna really had managed to reach him, even through the bitter cold that had lived in his hearts after he'd said goodbye to Rose, or if his time with her had been some hallucination brought on by a grieving mind. It was a comfort to know for certain that she was real, this woman of fire and noise.

She also did surprisingly well at sneaking about – he hadn't noticed before, but she was wearing relatively sensible shoes. They had heels on them, but they were quiet on the streets and she'd probably be able to make it back to the TARDIS in them, even at a fairly fast clip.

When he popped the lock with the sonic, she looked suitable impressed with him and, together, they tiptoed into the Renova offices. Another quick pass with the sonic screwdriver disabled the alarm set-up and then he pulled out a small sensor that would be able to soundlessly track down the uncatalysed Huon particles a bit more easily. It vibrated in his hand and the two of them snuck down the hallway. There was a doorway to the right that seemed to be the correct one, so he resonated that open and they slipped inside.

“This is just his private office,” Donna whispered after they'd shut the door. “I didn't see anything weird-looking in here earlier.”

He followed the stronger direction of the vibration to the wall on the far side. “It's not _in_ the room, Donna. This is just how we get there.”

“How do you mean?” she asked. “There's just the one door.”

“This wall has a secret door hidden in it,” he told her.

“Sounds like something out of James Bond, if you ask me,” she muttered.

“And me without my Bond girl,” the Doctor said, pressing his hand against the wall, checking for anything that felt off. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver to see if he could trip a switch that way, but it didn't work.

“Oi! If your Rose _were_ here, she'd be well within her rights to give you a good smack for that,” Donna said, only realizing halfway through her sentence that she needed keep quiet. He glared at her for a moment and then waited to see if she'd alerted anyone to their presence. She shrugged apologetically and then made a rather complicated hand gesture that seemed to be implying that, somehow, this was all his fault anyway.

“It's true, though,” she continued, much more quietly. “You shouldn't have said that.”

“Why not?” he asked, reaching behind the filing cabinet to see if there was, by chance, a hidden switch attached to it. No such luck. “Aren't they generally... attractive and intelligent and... well, other sought-after traits?”

“They're punch lines, Doctor,” she said, softly.

“Are they really?” he asked. He went over to the bookshelf in the corner and started mucking around with the books to see if that would do anything. “What about Heviatia Kingsley? I thought she was a hell of a strong woman. No one would dare make light of her.”

“Who's Heviatia Kingsley?” Donna asked. The Doctor thought back for a moment and then he realized what the problem was.

“Oh! She's from a future revival of the movies, sorry,” he said. “Pretend I didn't say anything.”

“I'll do no such thing,” Donna said. “You've got me curious. Tell me about Heviatia.”

“Well, she meets Bond while he's on a mission – she's also a spy, but she's _really_ looking for a way to get revenge for her sister's death,” the Doctor said, shifting the whole bookcase slightly to see if the answer was behind it. “You spend the whole first movie expecting them to fall into bed together, because the actors are simply _magnetic_ together, but they just end up helping each other, instead, not even a kiss. The movie ends and you think that's the end of it. They didn't show her in the trailers for the next movie, kept her part completely under wraps, so it's complete surprise when-”

“Hey!” she whispered fiercely. “Stop giving the story away.”

“But you wanted to know what happened,” he protested.

“I just wanted to know enough to know if I wanted to know,” she told him. He blinked a few times before he made sense of that. “Now that I know, I just might ask you to take me to the future to catch a viewing.”

“There's no need for that,” he said. “It's available in the TARDIS.”

“Really?” she asked, sounding more impressed with _that_ than she had with anything he'd told her before.

Well, she _would_ be.

“Yes, really,” he said. “I've got the entire collection on the database. And any other movie you might want to watch.”

“Have you got-”

“Yes.”

“You don't know what I was going to say,” she complained.

“It doesn't matter,” he said. “I've got it. _And_ a theatre-sized screen with the best possible sound, before you ask.”

“Blimey,” she said. “That ship of yours really is bigger on the inside.”

He chuckled, looking over to catch her eye – she was laughing, too, and the moment hung between them, the perfect sort of accord that he dimly remembered from somewhere in the past.

 _Romana_ , that was it. It was with Romana's second and fourth regenerations that he'd last felt this particular brand of teasing acceptance. And, standing here with Donna Noble, memories of Romana no longer ached and pulled at his thoughts. Not even the last one, of just before the final battle that had ended everything. What was it in Donna Noble that so keenly reminded him of his own people?

There was _something_ about her, something familiar but new. He couldn't... he couldn't quite figure out what it was, though.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts and then turned back to the task of getting through the wall. It was probably nothing. It was the memory of the ancient Huon particles that had infused her the last time they'd met, or some other such nonsense, he was sure.

“I don't think there's a secret door,” Donna said. “You've been over every inch of that wall. If there _were_ a secret door, you'd have found it.”

“Faulty logic,” the Doctor muttered, taking a step back and glaring at the wall. “I mentioned that the technology being used here was alien and advanced, well, so could be whatever might be hiding that door from us.”

“So, it's a smarter alien than you,” Donna said. “That probably means that we're in trouble.”

“The alien is _not_ more intelligent than I am!” the Doctor protested, only realizing that he'd spoken too loudly when Donna's eyes widened in alarm and she shushed him frantically. “Sorry,” he said, probably more annoyed with himself than she was. “But my point stands.”

“It bothers you, me saying that.” Donna was making that face of hers again. The one that she made before she said something he didn't particularly want her to know. “I mean, it _really_ bothers you.”

“It doesn't bother me,” the Doctor said. He yanked a few settings around on the sonic screwdriver, pulled out what Rose had once dubbed the 'tech-detector' and plugged the sonic into it. It buzzed softly and started glowing a pale green. “Ha! There _is_ a door here; the problem is that it's controlled by something other than a manual release.”

He lifted up his chin and raised his eyebrows, waiting for her to admit that she'd been wrong.

He should know better by now.

“You still haven't found it,” she pointed out, instead of acknowledging that he was proving that he was right about the door in the first place. Time was, a man could make something shine and everyone was impressed. These days, though, just about everything was made to light up.

Nice as it was to see the human race evolve and grow, he rather missed the days when his companions didn't complain so much. Five or six lifetimes ago, they'd been so much more willing to appreciate him.

Though, now that he thought about it, they might have argued with him a _bit_ back in the old days. Sarah Jane might have been outspoken a time or two. Or several. Then there had been Ace and her complete and total willfulness. And Tegan had been close to impossible most days. Always ready with a complaint, that was Tegan.

It had been the largest part of her charm. The TARDIS had been so much quieter after she'd gone.

Even Jo, who had started out hopeless but accommodating, had begun to question him more and more as time had gone by.

And Barbara had actually scolded him on occasion. Or possibly more frequently than that. Well, he could admit that he'd been something of a git back then – he'd only just broken free from his people and he'd still been rather troubled from everything that had happened with his wife and Koschei. He'd probably deserved some of Barbara's lectures, though certainly not all of them. _No one_ could have possibly deserved all of Barbara's lectures.

Well, perhaps Ian had.

He'd always rather assumed that the two of them would eventually be a romantic pairing, though back when he'd first known them, he'd framed the thought in terms of whether or not the primitives had decided to get on with mating yet.

He did still wonder, sometimes, if they'd ever gotten around to it.

Though, in this current time, the pair of them were likely dead and gone anyway.

He shivered slightly and then glanced at Donna out of the corner of his eye. She appeared to be... going through the man's desk. Well, it couldn't hurt.

“Are you looking for anything in particular?” he asked, leaning up against the desk. He grinned when his words startled her out of her search and his smile only widened at the glare that she shot him.

“There might be some sort of... I don't know, remote control for the door,” she said. She sounded uncertain, not brash the way she normally was. He didn't know why, because it was an excellent idea.

“Brilliant,” he said, remembering to keep his voice down this time. “There could very well be. Have you found anything yet?”

“Keeping in mind that I don't know what an alien remote control would look like,” she said, a bit sharply. “Maybe some of this stuff.”

She'd collected four or five odd items – probably paperweights, but there was a chance. He detached the sonic and picked up the first piece that she'd indicated – it was a strangely-shaped coral, almost reminiscent of the TARDIS, but it was completely dead. A mock-up, a fake. Something that someone thought looked good. The resemblance might be coincidence or it might be related to the fact that he suspected that the Master had been the person to set all this up. Perhaps he'd kept tiny reminders of home in all of his outlying offices and it had been left here after he'd died.

He placed that back down and reached out what looked like a silver spanner – it sparked a bit when he brought it close to the screwdriver.

“Oh, this does something,” he said. “I don't think it's our remote, but it's definitely advanced.” He slipped it into his pocket and started to get the next item, but then Donna grabbed his wrist when he was half-way there. “What is it?”

“You just stole that,” she said.

“You took his files.”

“I was investigating,” Donna said, sounding indignant. “You just... decided that he shouldn't have that, so you _took_ it. What gives you the right?”

“Time Lord,” the Doctor said. He wasn't sure what to do about Donna's hand. He could easily break free of her hold, but he didn't want to upset her any further. At least not until he figured out why she was so upset right now. “He _isn't_ supposed to have it. Humans shouldn't have technology like this for another two-hundred years.”

“Why do you get to choose?” she asked. Oh, it was one of _those_ sorts of arguments. “You don't know how he got it.”

“I don't need to,” the Doctor said. “He shouldn't have it.”

“How can you possibly _know_ that?”

“Because I _do_ ,” he whispered back, fiercely. “Because it's in my head. I look at your world, Donna, and I see what belongs, what's certain, and what's subject to change. That's what being a Time Lord _means_. It means that I do know, absolutely, whether or not a item or a person or an event is supposed to be happening. I can see Time, I can see it ticking away, moment by moment. All that is, all that was, all that ever will be – it's all up here in my head. It never goes away.”

She stared at him for a moment – he didn't think she even realized that she was still holding his wrist. She seemed rather stunned by his rush of words and, frankly, so was he.

“I'm sorry,” she said, finally. “I didn't know. What...”

She glanced away from him for a moment, then looked back, her eyes dark and steady.

“What do you see when you look at me?” she asked, so softly.

“You're traveling along a good path,” he said. “I can see... time shifting under your skin, the way that it was meant to. You fit perfectly into your time and place, the way that you should, but you have a... flexibility as well. That's part of the reason that I asked you, back on Christmas, whether or not you'd like to come with me. You have a malleable enough time line that it could handle the vortex.”

“Some people can handle it,” Donna said. “And others can't?”

“Some people are so... _fixed_ into their particular time that taking them into the past or future could prove ruinous. Not a guarantee, but the odds are not in their favor,” he said. Reinette, of course, had been like that, though he'd hoped to risk just one journey, to make up for everything that he couldn't give her.

“Famous people?” Donna asked.

“Not always,” he said. “There's no single category that they all fall into. I just... I look and I can see whether something is right or wrong, when it comes to time. It's not a judgement, Donna, it's just a fact.”

“I don't think that I like that,” she said.

“You don't have to.” He pulled his hand out from under her and she jumped slightly. He reached for small ceramic bowl and... he immediately felt why she'd picked it out, even though it looked like harmless bric-a-brac. It _sung_ , a vibration of not-quite-electric energy zipping about just below the surface. He had a good feeling about this one. He swiped his thumb over the bottom, searching for the grooves that he was certain had to be... yes, right there. And all he needed to do was harmonize – he slid his thumb across the dips in the bowl and hummed low in his throat.

The device in his hand shivered and so did the wall, a rectangular portion of it fading away in response to the Pelahu energy cloak. He looked over at Donna and... there it was, astonishment tinged with wonder.

“I said there was a door,” the Doctor said, slipping the energy key into a pocket and strolling through the open entryway.

Ah, now this was more what he'd been expecting – _this_ was an advanced laboratory dedicated to the science of longevity. The machine in the corner hissed softly and he went over to the nearest computer screen, pulling out the sonic screwdriver to speed the process up.

The research was... intriguing. It was definitely about making _humans_ live longer. Now, that may have just been the hook, but the tell-tale signs of making the transfer possible for other species were missing. So, the question remained: why would he care about giving humans the ability to renew their cells and even, given this particular avenue of development, the chance at regeneration? Why would he have made that a goal?

“What were you up to?” the Doctor wondered.

“Doctor, didn't we have a plan?” Donna asked.

“Right, yes, of course,” the Doctor said, pulling neutralizer out. He strode over to the device – which really was beautifully put-together – and slid open a panel to reveal the delicate wiring underneath. He placed the neutralizer on top of the wires and activated it. There was a tiny spark and the smallest hint of smoke and... that was it, the neutralizer itself breaking apart and seeping into the wiring to become indistinguishable from the rest of the machine. The transmitter in the neutralizer would corrupt any local computer files regarding any of the information that it had just destroyed, so they only had to worry about possible paper blueprints.

“What the blazes is going on?”

It was that young man – Emmanuel, Donna had said his name was – still blinking from sleep. He hovering in the doorway and looking across the room with such a look of shock on his face – his father hadn't told him, then, about this room or what was really going on in this company.

“I saw a light,” Emmanuel said, sounding dazed. “And I said to myself, 'oi, that's not right, is it?' Because Da never has trouble sleeping. He's never up at night. That's always me.”

“You didn't say that he'd wake up again,” the Doctor said to Donna.

“He didn't tell me that bit,” she said.

“Ms. Noble?” Emmanuel asked, focusing on her and sounding less sleepy by the minute. “Didn't you get fired? And...” he turned toward the Doctor. “And you're that bloke from Health and Safety. John Smith, wasn't it? Is this... is this a violation? Are you working together?”

“Yes,” Donna said, with a glance toward the Doctor, who nodded quickly. “We are _definitely_ working together. I was sent in to find out whether or not your company was violating procedure and protocol and, well...” she made a waving hand gesture that took in the whole of the room around them. “It's fairly obvious why I had to call my partner in to further assess the situation and take action, if need be.”

“And you're allowed to break into houses in the middle of the night?” he asked, a spark of suspicion forming in his eyes.

“Of course,” the Doctor said, heartily, coming over to pat Emmanuel heartily on the shoulder. Inexplicably, the boy blushed. “You seem like a stand-up sort of lad, and I'm sure that you want to give us your full cooperation.”

“I do?” he asked, sounding confused.

“It'll be what helps your dad the most, in the long run,” Donna added. “We're always willing to lower fines if the employees are willing to take corrective action.”

“You are?” he asked. He was staring at the Doctor's hand on his shoulder with the most baffled expression on his face, his cheeks still pink. “Oh, I guess that's all right, then. What...” he swallowed noisily. “What did you need?”

“Files,” the Doctor said. “Any sort of files about this very illegal project.”

“I've never been in this room before,” Emmanuel said.

“But you know how your dad _thinks_ , don't you?” the Doctor asked, arching an eyebrow. Emmanuel nodded, a little shakily, his gaze moving from the Doctor's hand to his face.

“Right. Of course, I do,” he said.

“Well, then, help us look,” the Doctor said. He turned away from the boy and caught the most peculiar expression on Donna's face. He'd have to ask her about that later.

Emmanuel actually _was_ of great help in locating the files, which was a bit of relief. Donna had turned what could have been a disaster into something of a benefit. It was clearly going to be a very good thing to have her along on the TARDIS. Rose was wonderful with people, naturally, but a little extra bit of help was always appreciated.

“What am I going to tell my dad?” Emmanuel asked, when the Doctor had stuffed the files into his coat – and he didn't miss Emmanuel's wide-eyed look at that, either.

“You don't need to tell him anything,” Donna said. “Just go back to sleep, knowing that you helped your father. Whatever his fines end up being, they'll be less harsh because you helped us.”

“Thank you,” the Doctor said, reaching out and shaking Emmanuel's hand warmly.

“Any time,” he said. Then he blushed _again_ and rushed onward with a babbling stream of words. “I mean, not that I want my da to get into trouble again, obviously. But I'm glad that I helped you. The investigation, I mean. I'm glad that I helped the investigation. Not that I have anything against my da! I mean...”

His words faded away then. The Doctor nodded, slowly, and then carefully disengaged his hand from Emmanuel's.

Luckily, he seemed to be over his fit of embarrassment by the time that Donna was shaking his hand, so that was all right, then. He even saw them to the door, glancing over his shoulder every now and then – and he was quite surprised and awed when the Doctor put the energy field back up, too.

“That went quite well,” the Doctor said, as they made their way back to the TARDIS.

“Yeah, you even got yourself a little admirer,” Donna muttered.

“What?” the Doctor asked.

“Are you trying to tell me that you didn't notice?” Donna asked. “He was practically falling at your feet.”

“He was just being helpful,” the Doctor said.

“It's a wonder that you managed to end up in a relationship,” Donna said. “You really didn't notice that he thought you were pretty?”

“I'm not pretty,” the Doctor said, reaching up and straightening his tie. He wasn't. Pretty was... well, boys like Adam or Jack or Mickey. Little bits of fluff that were only good for making women coo and act out of character. _He_ was handsome. And manly. Wait... did that mean... “Do _you_ think that I'm attractive?”

“What?” Donna asked. She actually stopped cold right where she was, an expression of actual distaste forming on her face. “Absolutely _not_. God, you're as skinny as a lantern post. I'm amazed that you've got Rose. Oi, she's probably a twig, isn't she? I bet she is.”

“No, I'm fairly certain that she's a human woman,” the Doctor said, amused. “No more plant DNA in her than in any of the rest of you.”

“I get to meet her soon, don't I?” Donna asked, sounding appropriately delighted. “And then I'll tell you whether or not she's a stick.”

Stick, twig... skinny as a lantern post. Well, Donna might be disappointed to meet Rose – she was a bit thinner now than she used to be. But he wasn't sure where Donna had placed the line of 'too skinny', so who was to say?

He escorted Donna into the TARDIS and then checked the readings – all clear. The radiation had lifted, which meant that the neutralizer had done its job. He still had those files and he'd look through those later – he was convinced that 'S' stood for 'Saxon' but there was always the chance that there was a different dangerous alien out there who was endangering humans under the guise of helping them. And if that was the case, he needed to do something about it.

He might not be from Earth, but he'd willingly wear the mantle of being its champion.


	5. In which Jack gets put on hold.

"Hey, darling, just got your message. What's the trouble?”

Hearing Jack's voice on the line was the most welcome sound Rose could imagine. She quietly excused herself from dinner with Sarah Jane and Luke, going over into the front hall, sitting down on the stairs leading up to the attic.

“Did you ever know a blonde Time Agent who went by the name 'Holly Cole'?” Rose asked, once they'd exchanged pleasantries.

“We went by all kinds of names,” Jack said, sounding cautious. “I knew more than one blonde. Have... have they been sniffing around? Do they know about the Doctor? I mean, do they know that he's more than myth?”

“This one does,” Rose said, tucking the phone in the corner of her shoulder and climbing the stairs that led to Sarah Jane's alien computer. “She knew about the Doctor and she claimed to know me.”

“A woman?” Jack asked, soundingly slightly startled.

“Who were you expecting?” Rose asked. She paused, summoning up a picture of Jack in her head. She could imagine the way his face might look right now, lips parted from the surprise and eyes thoughtfully narrowed. She wondered what his office in Cardiff looked like -- she and the Doctor really had to get out there to see it.

“When I got home from travelling with the Doctor... there was a Time Agent here to visit me. Something of an old friend, enemy and lover all at once,” Jack said. “He didn't say anything about the Doctor, but you can never be too careful. He's going by the name John Harper right now, so if you run into him, be wary. He's slightly short for a man, well-built, though on the slim side. _Great_ abs. Light brown hair, but it's been blond in the past. Blue eyes and cheekbones sharp enough to cut ice. Pouty lips.”

“Lover, you said?” Rose asked, amused. _That_ particular list was probably long enough to make anyone blink twice. “Holly had delicate features and big, blue eyes. Pale hair. She was very determined to get me to listen to her and she was very upset when I refused to keep playing her game.”

“That description could fit over a dozen agents,” Jack said.

“She said that she knew you... quite well,” Rose added.

“Doesn't narrow it down much,” Jack said, with a chuckle. Then his voice lowered slightly, sounding more serious. “There are a couple of specific names that come to mind – Juniper Cupid and Quesen Brunit are both blonde and blue-eyed, with delicate features. As far as I'm aware, they're both still in good standing with the agency. It could be one of them.”

“Would you say that either of them is trustworthy?” Rose asked. “Holly really wanted me to believe that I could trust her.”

“Not on your life,” Jack said. “Or, more to the point, not on the Doctor's. Juniper was primarily sent out to help with rebellions – _very_ familiar with a wide variety of weaponry. Quesen focused more on research. They're both dangerous, Rose, and the Time Agency has no reason to be fond of the Doctor, if they _do_ believe that he exists now.”

“I suppose that they might almost consider him a competitor,” Rose said, absently, opening the door to Sarah Jane's attic and going over to the wall where Mr. Smith lived. “I'm going to pull up that file on Holly and send it to you through the computer here. You'll be able to take a look at her picture and tell me if you know her.”

“Where are you, anyway?” Jack asked. “And where's the Doctor?”

“His high and mighty Time Lordness didn't think I was up to an adventure,” Rose said, not able to completely swallow her annoyance. “I'm staying in at a friend's house, just this once.”

“Hey, don't be so hard on him,” Jack said. “Losing you... he took it hard.”

“I _know_ that,” Rose said. “But that doesn't mean that he gets to order me about.”

“Of course not,” Jack said. “I'm just trying to remind you that he's probably going to continue to be particularly careful for a while.”

Rose bit back the sharp reply that hovered on the tip of her tongue.

“He's not the only one who worries,” she said, instead. “I don't like the thought of him out there alone.”

“He's more than proven that he can take care of himself,” Jack said. Rose's free hand curled into a loose fist – like the Doctor seemed to do at times, Jack was perhaps forgetting that Rose had been alone for eight years. She's survived and she'd thrived and she'd shown that she didn't _need_ anyone. She'd worked alone, more often than not, and after she'd broken things off with Mark, she'd lived alone, too.

“Are we talking about the same Doctor?” Rose asked, lightly. “He's brilliant, of course, he is, but he generally needs a bit of help to solve things. He can't do it all by himself.”

“He did survive without you, Rose,” Jack said.

“He's not as strong as you think he is,” Rose said, the maelstrom in the Doctor's head coming to mind – she had only a dim memory of what she'd experienced in there, but enough to show her that the Doctor was much more brittle than Jack seemed to think. “Believe me, Jack. I know.”

“Funny, he said the opposite about you,” Jack said. “Rose, what's going on over there? Why aren't you with the Doctor, really?”

Rose touched her stomach reflexively, where a small pain lingered.

“I got a little bit hurt at Christmas,” she said, reluctantly.

“The Titanic replica?”

“The same,” Rose said.

“Rose... how badly... don't be brave or stoic or whatever they taught you to be over in your Torchwood... just tell me... how bad was it?”

Rose breathed in sharply, then decided to go ahead and lay her cards out – if she couldn't tell Jack, then the Doctor really was the only person she could be honest with and she's not going to live that way. She needed Jack to know.

“A couple of inches in any direction and I might have died before the Doctor reached me,” she admitted.

“Fuck me.” It was barely a whisper of sound.

“I'm fine now,” she said, despite knowing that the reassurance was going to change nothing. “There's no need for worry, Jack. The danger's past.”

“Was it a spear or a gun or... not that it matters. Rose, could you _please_ try not to die?”

“It wasn't intentional,” she snapped, already half-regretting her honesty. “I was trying to stop a stupid bloody spaceship from crashing into London. Honestly, you and the Doctor... it's like you think I go out looking for trouble.”

Her breath caught in her throat as she had the sudden memory of her mother making that same accusation of the Doctor... oh, so many years ago, during their only Christmas all together. “ _Trouble's just the bits in between_ ,” the Doctor had said, blithe and full of cheer – he'd been so very brand-new, with quirks that she'd only just started to realize existed.

“You tend to wander off a lot, as I recall,” Jack said. “That's how I met you. You would have died if I hadn't been there.”

“I was following Jaime,” Rose said, trying to keep her voice level. “Following something suspicious. I never 'wander off', Jack. There's always a reason.”

“Maybe that's exactly what worries him,” Jack said. “He knows that if you're gone, you're chasing something. And that's usually dangerous.”

 _What am I supposed to do, sit quietly in the TARDIS and never do anything useful?_ Rose didn't ask.

“I don't know why we're talking about the Doctor,” Rose said. “I called to ask you about Holly, not to get my head examined. I've had plenty of that already, Jack.”

“You aren't the only one-” Jack cut himself off and then started again. “You're right. Send Holly's picture to harknessj@tw.gov.uk and I'll tell you if I've seen her before.”

“Just a second,” Rose said. She slipped her phone into her pocket and tried to look at where she'd remembered the screen being, back when Sarah Jane had shown her the computer. “Mr. Smith? I'm a friend of Sarah Jane's and I need you.”

With a great whoosh of sound, Mr. Smith emerged from the wall.

“Ms. Rose Tyler! How might I be of service?”

“I'd like you to send that picture to-”

“I beg your pardon, but to what picture are you referring?”

“The one of Holly Cole that you pulled off the internet just a few hours ago,” Rose said.

“I have no record of that activity,” Mr. Smith informed her.

“But you recognized me,” Rose said.

“Sarah Jane introduced us,” Mr. Smith said.

“But the whole reason that she did that was because I wanted your help to find Holly Cole. That's not on file? It isn't saved?”

“I have no record of such a request,” Mr. Smith said, pleasantly.

“All right. Would you be willing to let me take a look at your... circuitry?” Rose asked. This was something that she couldn't have even attempted to do the last time that she'd travelled with the Doctor, but she'd learned a lot in the past few years, especially after she'd gotten to know Tosh. If there was a chance that she might be able to see what was wrong, however small, she needed to try.

“Permission granted,” Mr. Smith said. A panel opened up in the front of the machine and Rose got down on the floor to take a look. Everything physical seemed to be in working order – nothing looked damaged or twisted about oddly.

“Can you call up your records?” she asked, brushing back her hair. “Everything that you've been asked to do in the last twenty-four hours, even the routine work?”

“Of course,” Mr. Smith said.

Rose scanned the list that popped up on screen, looking for anything strange or... ah! A central core dump, authorized by some odd set of characters that were unfamiliar to her.

“At eight-fifteen, you did a core dump – what does that mean?” Rose asked.

“My system purged unnecessary data,” Mr. Smith said, after a brief pause.

“And who set that up?” she asked.

“I have no record of that,” Mr. Smith said. There was a further moment of silence and then, “Which I find... troubling. Is there something wrong with me?”

“I think when we uploaded Holly's picture, an executable came with it,” Rose said, wishing that she could go back and kick herself. “A virus that deleted the data... and who knows what else... do you perform regular back-ups?”

“I do.”

“I would suggest that you restore to the one that you did _before_ you were introduced to me,” Rose said. “I'll go and get Sarah Jane, so that she can introduce us again.”

“That does seem like the most prudent course of action,” Mr. Smith said, then his screen darkened. Rose headed down the stairs, pulling her mobile back out of her pocket.

“All right, whatever you do, I would _not_ recommend searching for this Holly Cole's information – whoever she is, she knows computers and she's created a ride-along that purges data,” Rose said, all in one breath. “Jack? Are you still there?”

“With you,” he said. “And... any Time Agent would be capable of that, unfortunately. I'm sorry that I can't help you narrow the field down more.”

“You gave me two names – that's something,” Rose said.

“I hope that it's enough.”

“So do I. Thanks for your help, Jack,” Rose said. “I'll call you later.”

“Anytime – you don't need a reason,” Jack said. “Give my love to the Doctor.”

“I'll give him a kiss,” Rose offered impulsively.

“Mmm, make sure to slip in some tongue,” Jack said. Rose laughed and after a bit more teasing, they ended the call. She leaned up against the wall – she could hear Sarah Jane and Luke in the other room and she needed to go tell them about Mr. Smith and the virus but, for just this moment, she wanted to stop and take a few breaths.

Two potential names and a whole host of possibilities that Jack didn't remember well enough. And her public information came with a hidden sting. Holly was a lot more complicated than she pretended to be. Rose was much less innocent now than she'd been when she met Jack, and considerably less naïve. The slow, sparing way that Holly had tried to give out information rang very clearly as game-playing and Rose was not fond of people who played around with lives.

What could she do about it?

She could continue to refuse to listen to Holly, though that carried its own risks. If Holly hadn't said anything, would _everyone_ have died on the Titanic? What was happening right now because she'd sent Holly away?

Was the Doctor in danger?

Rose let out a frustrated breath at even having that thought. _Of course,_ the Doctor was in danger. The Doctor was in danger every bloody moment of his life. It was hardly reason to curl up in a corner and moan.

Eight years.

The first few months, before she'd said good-bye to the Doctor, had been almost easy, really. She'd felt empty inside, after she'd cried herself out at the wall. There'd been no pain, just this hollow place behind her ribs. She'd got up each day without any problems; she'd let herself be introduced around Torchwood and had worked on every project that they'd offered. She'd had late night dinners with Mickey, where neither of them had said a word. But she'd survived.

Then she'd started hearing the Doctor's voice in her head and everything inside her woke up again. She'd packed her bags – how stupidly young and hopeful she'd been – and they'd followed the Doctor's voice to Norway. And he'd told her good-bye.

It was after _that_ that the hard part came, because for six months after Bad Wolf Bay, she'd been a walking wound. It was during that time that she met Mark and became friends with him. And it was just friends, at first. She hadn't been capable of anything more. Her heart belonged to the Doctor, irrevocably, as though she'd actually physically handed it to him in a locked chest, like in that... that pirate movie.

She'd liked those movies – Johnny Depp made for a great pirate. They didn't exist in the parallel world. Johnny Depp hadn't ever gone into acting. He was a painter, instead, and not a very successful one.

Funny how things worked out.

She'd been a mess back then, until Tosh came to her and told her about an idea – _I think I can make something that could check up on other universe. Maybe we could even cross over. But I need something to anchor it. That's my problem. Considering all the rumours... I was hoping that you could help me._

Her TARDIS key had hung around her neck every day since she'd fallen through into Pete's world, even though she'd known by then that there was no hope of it heating up and telling her that the Doctor was on his way. And the TARDIS... that was pure temporal power.

That key had ended up being the heart of what they'd called the 'dimensional cannon'. Tosh had successfully rigged it to measure timelines and, two years into the project, they'd had a glimmer of hope. There was something coming in a year or two, something that was affecting timelines all over the place.

She'd got her expectations up. There had been training and researching and long nights spent thinking of what she'd say when she saw the Doctor. Her life had been full, again, if not as warm as it had been during the years with the Doctor.

And then the window had just... disappeared one day. The cannon stopped measuring alternate timelines and the machine just went cold. Nothing that Tosh, Mickey, or anyone else could do made a damn bit of difference.

The funding for the project got pulled and Pete had handed her back her key.

That night, she'd gone out and found her friend Mark – Mickey's knowledge of the Doctor had been too much of a sore spot for him to be a comfort to her. She'd wanted to be near someone who had no idea where she was from or what she'd lost.

She'd gone out and got drunk as all hell and shagged Mark rotten and then been sick in his bed.

Not the _best_ start to a relationship. Until that night, she hadn't ever really realized that Mark liked her that way – sure, she saw his eyes roaming her way a time or two, but that was just him being a bloke, she'd thought. But the morning after, he'd told her in soft, hopeful words just how much her coming to him and _trusting_ him meant.

She hadn't the heart to break his, not at the start.

He never asked about the key she wore around her neck or the way she turned her head too quickly when tall and thin men with dark hair came around the corner or how some part of her was always, _always_ listening for the sound that meant she would get to go home.

Eight years and she'd never quite managed to work the Doctor out of her system.

Had Sarah Jane finally managed it? Was that what this house and the kid meant?

Was this what moving on looked like?

She took in a deep, shuddery breath and rubbed her fingertips across her bracelet. She'd only had it for a few days and touching it for reassurance had already become a habit. But, still, it served as good reminder – she didn't need to be Sarah Jane, because she'd found her way home.

Which was good, because she'd been rather a spectacular failure at being Sarah Jane.

She went in and told Sarah Jane what had happened with Mr. Smith and the reintroduction to the computer a few minutes later went well enough. Luke volunteered the idea of installing more safeguards into the system so that Mr. Smith _would_ be able to hold the information about Holly Cole, but Rose reassured him that he didn't need to – she and the Doctor would look into it. If they couldn't find anything, though, they might ask for his help.

And, over the course of the conversation, she'd managed to get the bare bones of how Luke had become Sarah Jane's son from the two of them – Luke was rather wildly enthusiastic about telling her, once he'd got permission from Sarah Jane.

“But I am human, Mum says, even though I'm very young,” he said, again. “Not any particular human, though. We had issues about that recently. I _am_ a great deal smarter than almost anyone else on the planet, though Mum tells me that I shouldn't go around saying that. And Clyde told me once that saying that makes me sound like a conceited berk, only Mum said that he shouldn't say that, either. She threatened to wash out his mouth for it, but wouldn't explain why.”

Rose grinned over at Sarah Jane, who was half-covering her mouth, in either amusement or embarrassment. They were all arranged in comfortable places around the attic, Mr. Smith stowed away, just talking. It was nice – it was _relaxing_ , even.

Maybe that was why, when she heard the sound of the TARDIS returning, Rose didn't stiffen at the sound the way that Sarah Jane did.

“Oh, you go ahead,” Rose said. “I'll be down in a minute.”

Sarah Jane paused, studying Rose's face carefully, then she let out a soft breath.

“You really weren't ever worried, were you?” she asked. “You never doubted that he'd come back, not for a moment.”

“You should go talk to him,” Rose said. “Introduce Luke. Maybe give him a chance to talk to you, too.”

“Yes, I rather think that would be a good idea,” Sarah Jane said, holding out her hand to Luke – the two of them headed downstairs, leaving Rose alone.

She looked around for a bit, some of her notions about Sarah Jane's lifestyle having been turned on their heads by Luke's stories of aliens and battles here on Earth. Life went on – she'd first had to learn that back when the Doctor had taken her home a year late.

It was true for the Doctor, too. Harriet Jones had been right about one thing, at least, and that was that the Doctor couldn't always be here when the world was in trouble. But what Harriet hadn't known was that the world also had Jack and it had Sarah Jane here to fight for it.

The Doctor didn't have to stand alone, these days. And how many other Sarah Janes and Marthas were out in the world, doing good things because the Doctor had inspired greatness in them?

Rose pressed her fingers down on the bracelet that the Doctor had given her, took a steadying breath, and headed down the stairs.

He'd want to tell her about his latest adventure.


	6. In which Donna wishes she had a rewind button on the universe.

The Doctor's ship was much less intimidating this time around, though just as impossible for Donna to understand. She didn't care what fancy language he used, it was just _wrong_ for something to be bigger on the inside than it was on the outside. Still, bizarre and unnatural as it was, she'd missed it.

Oh, hell, she'd missed the bloody idiot flying it, too, though she was determined _not_ to, for even a single moment, ever get soppy over having found him again.

“We'll land a few hours after I left her,” the Doctor said, an irrepressibly cheeky smile on his face. “Not even a full day. She'll be pleased about that. And I think that she'll like you.”

Donna wasn't all that certain about that. Sure, Rose was probably a nice enough person, but she and the Doctor hadn't been reunited for very long, that much was obvious from their earlier conversations, and Donna wasn't sure how _she_ would have felt about a third person tagging along on her honeymoon or hanging about her house if she'd actually gone through with the marriage to Lance.

If he hadn't been betraying her all along and planning to feed her to a giant spider, of course.

With a shudder, they came to a halt. Donna was about to rush out the doors when the Doctor muttered a caution, running his finger down a line of... figures on his screen and frowning slightly.

“What's wrong?” she asked.

“Nothing,” he said, immediately. Then he paused, his hand going to the side of his neck and rubbing a bit. “Well, we're definitely in the right time and place. And we eliminated the radiation problem, no doubt about that. There's just... hmm. There's something odd. Nothing to worry about, I shouldn't think. _Probably_ nothing. I wouldn't give it another thought, if I were you.”

“That was just about the opposite of reassuring,” Donna said.

“Well, there's nothing we can do about it now,” he said, breezily, as if him declaring it so meant that everyone else should automatically fall in line with him. “Ready to meet Rose?”

He held out his arm and she looped her hand around it. She'd argue with him later – she really _did_ want to meet his Rose.

“Dying to,” she said, with a wide smile. Together, they went out the doors of the TARDIS and into what was probably late evening in London. She might even know the neighborhood, Donna thought, looking around curiously.

“Doctor!”

Donna glanced up and saw an older brunette woman standing at the doorway of the house, a warm smile on her face. The Doctor pulled away from Donna and greeted the woman with a joyful hug – that must be Rose, then. _Definitely_ not a twig – she might even wear the same size that Donna did. Gorgeous skin – she was probably nearing her fifties or in them and she could have been taken for younger than that by anyone who didn't look at people as often as Donna did.

“I wasn't sure you'd be coming back,” Rose said and the Doctor made a soft sound of dismay. Donna wasn't all that happy herself. Everything he'd gone through after losing her and she thought that he'd just kip out and leave her behind? Not in this lifetime!

“Of course, I came back,” the Doctor said, pulling back from the hug.

“Who's your friend?” Rose said, looking straight up and into Donna's eyes. She sounded quite well-educated, this woman, like someone who'd spent a lot of time talking. Well, the Doctor had said that she was good with people.

“This is the lovely and clever Donna Noble,” the Doctor said, in that fond tone of voice that almost tipped over into sounding condescending.

“And I know who you are, of course,” Donna said, crowding past the Doctor to reach forward to take Rose's hand in hers. “He talks about you all the time.”

“He does?” Rose asked, sounding bemused, if pleased.

“Ah, Donna, actually-”

“Oh, yes,” Donna said, warmly, determined to make a good impression. “ _You_ are his favorite subject.”

“That's so sweet,” Rose said, a faint flush rising up on her cheeks. The Doctor was continuing to make half-hearted protests and Donna ignored him, trying to focus all her charm on Rose. “I had no idea.”

“It's like I know you already,” Donna said.

“You don't,” the Doctor said. Well, that was rude of him. Out of the corner of her eyes, Donna could see one of his hands fluttering about like a wounded bird. “Donna, she's not-”

“Any friend of the Doctor's is a friend of mine,” Rose said. “All right, _most_ friends of the Doctor's _could_ be friends of mine.”

“Who have I known that you didn't like?” the Doctor asked, his attention turning instantly from Donna to Rose. “Was it Harry? There was always something odd between you and Harry.”

“Oh, don't be absurd,” Rose said. “Despite our various disagreements, I was always more than fond of Harry. I almost named Luke 'Harry'.”

“Who's Luke?” the Doctor asked.

Rose pointed backwards. For the first time, Donna noticed that someone was standing behind her – a teenage boy. He was looking over at Rose with... concern.

“Hi,” the boy – Luke – said, looking quite uncertain. “Mum's told me a lot about you.”

“Mum?” the Doctor asked.

“Rose has a son?” Donna asked.

“What?” Rose asked, wrinkles popping up in her forehead as her brow creased in confusion. “No, she hasn't.”

“She?” Donna asked, feeling rather like she'd stepped in it.

“That's not Rose,” the Doctor said, sounding a bit tired.

“Oh,” said Donna. Her stomach churned unpleasantly. Rose was 'staying with a friend', he'd said. This must be the friend.

For her part, the light in not-Rose's face dimmed slightly.

“Ah. I see introductions _are_ necessary after all. I'm Sarah Jane Smith, former traveling companion of the Doctor,” the woman said forcefully, shaking Donna's hand firmly before dropping it. “Rose is upstairs, on her way down.”

“I'm so sorry,” Donna said, knowing that her face had to be a very unattractive red. “Can we please pretend that the last few minutes never happened?”

Sarah Jane Smith chuckled, and Donna could only hear a tiny bit of bitterness in the sound.

“I'll agree to that,” she said. “So, I hear that you're... Donna Noble, was it?”

“Pleased to meet you,” Donna said. Then Sarah Jane introduced the two of them to her son Luke, the boy who'd been hovering behind her. Donna forced a smile, the awkwardness of her mistake making her shift uncomfortably.

Hearing the sound of footsteps on the stairway was one of the biggest reliefs in Donna's life and the response that it drew from the Doctor was equally enormous – he stopped mid-sentence, his eyes lighting up, and then he bounded half-way up the steps to meet the woman on her way down. He held out a hand to her and she placed her hand in his, her eyes entirely on his face. A tiny braided silver bracelet sparkled on her wrist.

Donna's first moments of seeing the real Rose Tyler, then, were before Rose even knew she existed.

She was blonde, that was the first thing that Donna noticed. Blonde out of a bottle, with dark eyebrows and the tiniest hints of roots. Beautiful, in slightly _off_ way – her jaw was too strong and her mouth was too wide for her to belong on the covers of the magazines that Donna used to spend so much time reading, but she was practically glowing with life, enough so that Donna almost wondered if the woman was pregnant.

But the direction of her stare gave away the real reason behind her happiness – she was absolutely in love with the Doctor. That much was clear by the way she'd focused in on him, the way the two of them touched like it would be unnatural to remain apart, and the softness in her face as she gazed at him.

When they reached the bottom step, the Doctor leaned even more closely toward Rose, whispering something in her ear – she looked up, then, and finally saw Donna, a smile of welcome on her lips. The Doctor's arm slid around her waist and that glimmer of youth and happiness that Donna had seen in him earlier had strengthened with the presence of Rose. Seeing him like this, she didn't know how she'd ever thought that Sarah Jane could have been his Rose.

“Rose, this is Donna Noble,” he said. Rose was leaning back slightly in the Doctor's arms, her hair brushing against his shoulder. “Donna, it is my great pleasure to introduce you to Rose Tyler, my wife.”

Donna took a step forward, extending both her hands toward Rose, who took them with a sort of giddy joy apparent in her every movement – was this the first time she'd been introduced that way? Donna hadn't known for certain that Rose had been married to the Doctor, but the news definitely wasn't in the realm of 'surprising'. His grief had been that of a widower.

“Wife?” Sarah Jane asked, in a high-pitched tone of voice.

Or maybe she was wrong about the information not surprising anyone, Donna thought, turning around so that she could see Sarah Jane again – she seemed completely stunned by the news.

“Rose didn't mention?” the Doctor asked, sending an amused glance in Rose's direction. Rose's cheeks acquired a pink tinge and she shrugged casually.

“Rose didn't mention,” Sarah Jane confirmed. “Married? _You_? How will you manage?”

“How does anyone?” he asked, making a motion with his hand as if to physically brush away the question. “It's not as though I haven't done it before, Sarah. And I think... no, I'm sure that this time is going to go more smoothly.”

“You are a few hundred years out of practice,” Rose said, teasingly, bumping her shoulder against his. It surprised a wider grin out of him and he was gazing at Rose with... well, that's how Donna had wanted Lance to feel about her on their wedding day. It was almost enough to make her brain skip over the 'few hundred years' bit. She... was going to need to think about that one later.

“I can see now why you knew he was coming back,” Sarah Jane said, her words rueful. “Why _didn't_ you say, Rose?”

“We had other things to think about,” Rose said, sounding more serious. “Doctor, that woman – she might be a Time Agent.”

“The annoying one?” the Doctor asked.

“You've never even met her!” Rose protested.

“Oh, I'm an excellent judge of the character of people I haven't met yet,” the Doctor said smoothly. Rose laughed and Donna could see his gaze lingering on her open mouth before he blinked and seemed to startle out of his daze. “By the way, I invited Donna along for a while.” Rose's mouth pressed shut and she looked slightly hurt, if Donna was reading her right. The Doctor seemed to see that too and, as if in response, his words sped up. “In the TARDIS. Just for... a trip. Or two. Or just one! We'll see how it goes. Donna. In the TARDIS. With us.”

Donna was just about to protest that the Doctor hadn't said anything about only one or two trips, but Rose spoke first.

“The two of us,” Rose said, sweetly, and her smile had tightened further. Donna bit her lip, hoping that this wasn't a bad sign. “And Donna. Donna... Noble, wasn't it?” Donna nodded and smiled gamely, but Rose didn't look away from the Doctor. “Is there something that you wanted to tell me, Doctor?”

“Apart from... Donna?” he asked, reaching up and tugging at his ear. He resembled nothing so much as a guilty schoolboy being scolded by a particularly strict headmaster. “No, she's about it. Can't think of anything else. Not at the moment.”

“We should talk outside,” Rose said, disentangling herself from the Doctor. She glanced over at Donna with a polite smile that felt so cold after the way she'd been behaving just moments earlier. “It was good to meet you.” She glanced over at Sarah Jane. “Sarah Jane, _lovely_ to see you again. Wonderful to meet you, Luke.”

She swept out the door. The Doctor stood there for a moment, eyes wide, looking rather like a puppy that had just been smacked over the head with a newspaper, and then he hurried after her, closing the door behind himself.

Donna smiled awkwardly at Sarah Jane and tried to resist the urge to eavesdrop.

“So, he talks about Rose a lot,” Sarah Jane said, still sounding stunned. “That's nice. Since they're... married. Apparently.”

“Well, I puffed it up a bit,” Donna admitted. “I thought you were Rose and she'd have half the say as to whether or not I'd be staying on, so I was-”

“Kissing her arse?” Luke volunteered. Sarah Jane laughed in surprise and Luke shrugged. “That's what-”

“Clyde says, I know,” Sarah Jane said. “He's not always the best resource to use, Luke.”

“Actually, it was Maria,” Luke said. Sarah Jane had her lips pressed tightly together, probably to keep from laughing again. “She was talking _about_ Clyde, though. He thought this girl... Melody... was snoggable and _he_ said he was just being nice to her at lunch last Wednesday but _Maria_ said...”

“Yes, we all know by now what Maria said.” Sarah Jane reached up and pressed her knuckles against her mouth, clearing her throat. “Regardless of who said it, it's not the most appropriate phrase.”

“Accurate, though,” Donna said. “What do you think they're talking about?”

“Any number of things,” Sarah Jane said. “Rose wasn't exaggerating when she said that we had other things to think about. She has something of a stalker... someone who claims to be from future who has come back to give her advice.”

“What's wrong with that?”

“It could destroy her timeline,” Luke said. “If she creates a paradox, it could destroy the universe.”

“Yeah,” Donna said, after a moment. “That seems important.”

“But what about you... how did you meet the Doctor?” Sarah Jane asked.

“He saved me from a giant planet-eating spider on what was supposed to be my wedding day,” Donna said. “You?”

“We were both undercover, following hints of an odd occurrence, and I managed to follow him into the TARDIS without quite realizing what I was doing,” she said, with a nostalgic smile. “Well, it was my job. I'm a journalist.”

“Oh, that's lovely,” Donna said, feeling a bit like an underachiever. “I temp.”

“That's nice,” Sarah Jane said, with a practiced politeness that likely came as easily to her as breathing. “Good variety.”

“Not really,” Donna said. “Mostly always the same thing, just in different places. Part of why I want to travel with the Doctor is because I want to see that bigger picture that he talks about. All my life, I've only seen the smallest part of what matters. The stupid things. Gossip rags and crisps and nothing like what he sees all the time.”

“I can understand that,” Sarah Jane said, with a nod. “He gives us so much when we travel with him. My life was never the same.”

“You don't regret it, then?” Donna asked, knowing that she was prying, but not caring enough to stop.

“Oh, no,” Sarah Jane said. “Every single moment, even the most terrifying, was worth it. He's... utterly unique. He can be frustrating and impossible and make you want to tear your hair out, but he's also rather splendid and brilliant and he has moments of compassion and truth that can take your breath away.”

The door opened and the Doctor popped inside, looking less than best pleased.

“Rose said that you'd already eaten,” he said to Sarah Jane. “But I was wondering... perhaps you might be inclined to feed Donna and myself. She's had nothing but stale biscuits all day.”

“Where'd Rose go?” Sarah Jane asked.

“Oh. She's... in the TARDIS,” he said, with a very forced smile. “We may have had something of a small, tiny, insignificant little... tiff.” He coughed, clearing his throat. “She's a little frustrated and said that she needed to work off some minor aggression. So, she said to wait a few hours before going back in.”

“But the TARDIS is enormous on the inside,” Sarah Jane said. “Surely there's enough room for the both of you.”

The Doctor winced, though he tried to hide it.

“She likes Rose,” he said. “They've bonded. I rather think she'll be inclined to take Rose's side.”

“Who will?” Donna asked.

“The TARDIS,” he said.

“Your ship is alive?” Luke asked, sounding understandably fascinated. The Doctor... relaxed, that was the best way of putting it, and launched gleefully into a flood of words, half of which Donna couldn't even make out, but Luke was nodding as though he understood every bit of it.

Luke and the Doctor's conversation made everything easier. Sarah Jane loosened up from the tension that had stiffened her spine up since the Doctor's announcement – Donna was still finding it odd that, though they called Sarah Jane a friend, neither the Doctor nor Rose had so much as _mentioned_ to her that they were married – and was able to participate in the discussion on a level that Donna didn't feel capable of, not yet.

Though, she promised herself, she was going to learn about the Doctor's world until she could. After Donna had eaten her fill – and the Doctor pecked away at small bits of messy food, which was odd, because she'd pegged him for a big eater – the four of them went back out to the yard, where the TARDIS waited.

“Are you really going to keep out of your own ship until Rose lets you back in?” Sarah Jane asked. It was hard to see her expression in the dark, but she sounded so completely perplexed that Donna really didn't need to.

“Oh! She'd let me in,” the Doctor said, and Donna noticed that he'd quickly slipped past the more significant part of the question. “That's not the problem. She's just... not happy with the way the current situation has evolved.”

Donna's heart dropped down to her stomach – that had to be about the Doctor inviting her on board. She was _right_ about Rose not approving and, damn it, she'd fought so hard to find the Doctor and his life again and the idea that it could all slip away because of _one girl_ -

Because of the most important person in the Doctor's life. _That_ was the part to remember.

“Now that she's had some time to think matters over, I suspect that she'll-”

“Let you in?” Sarah Jane's voice echoed with amusement. She _hadn't_ missed what the Doctor had failed to say earlier, then. “Oh, Doctor, this has been the most unexpected visit.”

“It's not over just yet,” he said, skipping ahead of them a bit and then turning around, blocking them from the door. “I- I think that I should go in first.”

“Are you actually _afraid_ of what she's going to say?” Sarah Jane asked.

“What?” the Doctor asked, and that was genuine confusion crinkling up his forehead. “Why would I be?”

“You seem so nervous,” Sarah Jane said, placing a hand on her hip and tilting her head as she stared at the Doctor. Donna wondered if Sarah Jane could divine more of the Doctor's mind than Donna herself could. “So unlike yourself. I noticed that before, with this girl. You're... different with her. I didn't want to think about it last time – I wanted to believe that it was the same as always, but it isn't, is it?”

“Of course, it's different,” he said. “Sarah Jane, she's my partner. My equal. The one person who could-”

He cut himself off, looking horribly conflicted.

“Who could... what, Doctor?” Sarah Jane asked, reaching out to touch the Doctor's shoulder. He looked over at her hand, then at where Donna and Luke were standing, and shook his head.

“It doesn't matter,” he said, taking a careful step backward. Sarah Jane's hand hovered in the air briefly and then she dropped it, Donna could see the confusion on her face. The Doctor shrugged, looking resigned but determined. “Call it a quirk of Gallifreyan marriage, if that helps. I know that humans- well, some humans- prize the marriage bond above all others. I'd like you to respect that.”

“Of course,” Sarah Jane said. The Doctor smiled at them and then went into the TARDIS without a backwards look.

“That Rose sure has him by the short and curlies,” Donna said. Sarah Jane gave her a startled glance and then giggled, soon enough breaking into full-force laughter. Luke was looking rather baffled by everything, but went over to Sarah Jane, who wrapped an arm around his shoulders as she continued to laugh.

“I never thought I'd see the day,” Sarah Jane said at last, when her laughter had faded. “The Doctor acting like such a... such a _man_.”

“Don't know, he still seems alien enough to me,” Donna said. “Just a daft one.”

“Yes, well, he's always been that,” Sarah Jane said, moving away from Luke to contemplate the TARDIS, though it was unimpressive enough from the outside. “Do you think that they're... that they... well. _You_ know.”

“I don't,” Luke volunteered.

“That was rather the point,” Sarah Jane said. “Donna?”

“I'd be surprised if they weren't,” she said. “They _are_ married.”

“Oh, you're talking about sex,” Luke said.

“Luke Smith!” Sarah Jane said.

“You brought it up,” he said, with the first hint of defiance that Donna had seen out of him. “And I'm not as innocent as you think I am.”

Sarah Jane was shocked to silence for a moment – her mouth opened and no words emerged. Luke's bravery appeared to desert him then. He glanced down at the grass, scuffled his feet a bit, and stuck his hands in his pockets.

“Who exactly-” Sarah Jane broke off what she was going to say. She sent a hesitant look at Donna and then took a step toward Luke, reaching out to touch his arm. “I did hope that you would feel comfortable telling me these things, Luke.”

Donna was trying to figure out the least awkward way of avoiding listening to their conversation while staying by the TARDIS just in case it tried to leave without her, when the door swung open. Rose was leaning against the railing that marked the entranceway, an embarrassed half-smile – or something else that caused her cheeks to be flushed – on her face.

“The Doctor mentioned that he offered to take you to see Rome,” Rose said, lightly. “What do you say, Donna? One trip to Rome, all expenses paid.” Her gaze flitted over to Sarah Jane and Luke. “You're invited along, too, if you like. I've been before and it's... it's _very_ exciting.”

“Traveling with the Doctor always was,” Sarah Jane said. “But I think that we'll pass this time. I have a conversation to finish. Where did the Doctor wander off to?”

“Said he needed something out of his room, but mostly he just hates saying goodbye,” Rose said, confidentially, as though they were all great friends. “Do you wait until he comes out and force him to? I'm all right with that.”

“There's no need,” Sarah Jane said. “Tell him... tell him to visit, whenever he likes. Or whenever you like.”

“Thanks,” Rose said. “I- I really do appreciate everything you've done for me.”

“You're welcome,” Sarah Jane said. “I won't pretend to understand your relationship with the Doctor, but you seem to be able to- to affect him in a way that I never knew anyone could. He was always so... self-contained. You've changed that. I don't know how, but you've changed him.”

“He's just regenerated since you first knew him,” Rose said. “That's all.”

Donna narrowed her eyes and wondered when she might have the chance to ask the Doctor about this 'regeneration' thing. He'd mentioned it a while back, in connection with what Renova was trying to do.

“No,” Sarah Jane said. “But I'm not sure what it is. Be careful, Rose. I know that you feel so certain of him, but he's not human. Don't ever forget that.”

“Have a good night, both of you,” Rose said to Sarah Jane and Luke, her voice acquiring a brittle edge that they couldn't have missed. Sarah Jane nodded and then she and Luke turned away. Donna whispered a goodbye to them as they passed her and they responded in kind. Then, she took those few steps back into the TARDIS, the door shutting behind her.

“Rome, you said?” Donna asked. “I'd love to go there. When do we leave?”

“Soon as the Doctor comes back out,” Rose said, lifting her chin slightly. She was stubborn, but Donna was certain that she was even more so.

And she was going to convince Rose Tyler that she should stay for longer than one trip, no matter what it took.


End file.
